The darkness that binds us
by Captain-Creeper
Summary: A suppressed threat, the grimm have been driven back, but Nature has a way of getting revenge. A life destroyed and a terrible secret revealed, a girl's destiny falls into place in a way she would never be able to fully understand. There is a second story that takes greater detail into the events I dont really elaborate on, so check it out to stay in the loop
1. A nightmare

Dust to dust

Ashes to ashes

It was a dark night

The moon was in pieces due to the cloud cover, adding to the eeriness.

Nearby the unusually quiet kingdom of Vale, a small community had sprung up.

They were all peaceful, except for the grimm slaying hunters and huntresses who protected

the town.

However, a dark threat had risen.

A new form of grim was about to be unleashed, and no one will be taking it down so easily as the others.

"Hey, are you a member of the white fang?" A girl impatiently yells at a nearby stranger who is covered in all black, and is wearing a grimm mask across his/her/it's face.

At his side it's hand grips a blade, as black as it's clothes, the sword radiating a dark and uneasy feeling in the Girl, a young huntress who quickly pulls out a shotgun and aims it at him, her, it?

The figure steps closer.

The girl aims and prepares to fire, when the mask grins, and the eyes glow red.

Suddenly she finds herself confused, is it a grimm or a person?

It runs towards her and she fires her gun at it, but to no avail.

The figure seems to brush it off, and it gets right to her and goes to swing the sword.

She fires a full shot into it's face and it flies back.

She takes a solidified breath, feeling at ease when it gets launched, but she noticed that breath was coming from the mouth of the mask, this was a grimm.

It gets up, whatever skin is has, it can take some serious abuse.

The grimm charges again, she waits until before but the grimm drops into a slide right as she starts to fire, making her miss.

The grimm stands up on it's left hand and legs, quickly and animalistically slicing her right leg, sending the girl screaming to the the ground out of pain.

The grimm stands and levels it's sword with her neck, her aura being neutralized after the first slice, eliminating any chance of nulling the pain and rolling away from it.

In one swift and decisive strike, the huntresses' head landed on the ground, and rolls a few feet before stopping.

The dead girl's shrieks had alerted the town and the rest of her team was on the way.

The grimm lifted up her shotgun and held it behind it's back, while a man with a knife lunged at it.

It blocked effortlessly with it's sword, shoved him back with ease, then pulled out the shotgun and blasted the man's brain with it.

His aura was still intact so he did not suffer much from the blast, scrambling to his feet.

"I will make you pay!" He took off like a bolt of lightning, striking at the grimm from every angle.

The grimm tracked and blocked all of his movements, blocking and slashing at him each time it can.

Soon he lands a small cut and the man's speed instantly crumbles.

He was speeding in the air and smashes the ground, his semblance and aura being completely cut off from him.

His two female teammates take a defensive posture while he shakily rises to his feet. His knife switches into a hand gun and he fires between the girl's spears.

The grimm doesn't flinch as the shots slam into it, seemingly being deflected.

"Oh god in heaven it has an aura!"

The girls' spears are hastily changed into carbine rifles, and they back up while pouring shots into it.

"How strong is this bastard's aura?" The man calls, while the grimm raises their fallen ally's shotgun, and fires.

The blast injured the man, who's teammates moved into the majority of the shot spread, their auras are still working fine, but the girl on the left of the grimm stumbles a bit, her aura not as strong as the other girl's.

The man holds his jaw, bleeding from one of the shot spreads, while his leg bleeds from several spots.

The grimm keeps firing, his shots wearing down the strength or their auras, while they try to do the same.

The man can no longer retreat, but the grimm presses closer, eventually forcing the girls to leave him.

The grimm slams the blade of his sword into the man's head, then throws the body at the girl on the left, knocking her over with the force put behind it.

She struggles to lift the man's body, and when her friend helps her, the grimm moves into a full sprint.

The girl turns away from her friend, to find herself blinded by a swing of his sword, her screams filling the air.

The pinned girl began sobbing for dear life as the grimm slashes her friends head in half, blood spraying onto the living girl.

A final swing silences the girl,

cutting her throat and ending her ability to speak as she chokes on her blood and gasps for air.

The grimm leaves, with a large smile, his sword leaving a blood trail until it is cleaned by the grass.


	2. Waking up never felt so bad

_What a tragedy that has befallen you_

"Hmm?"

_Time to wake up girl_

"Where the hell am I, all I see is darkness"

_Your in a coffin_

"WHAT?!"

_Careful, the air is running out_

"How did I get here?!"

_Try and remember_

She searches her memories for a clue, to be confronted with a picture of a grimm slashing into her throat.

"But I feel fine, I'm not dead and I can speak!"

_You owe me for that, start by getting us out of this coffin_

"Fine" She starts pushing on the lid, but to her displeasure she was already buried six feet down.

Damn, she said mentally, then found a vial of dust in the coffin, a parting gift from… Who ever the hell actually liked her she guessed. Her parents were assholes and she ran away from them to Beacon the moment she got the chance, and as far as she knew the only people who liked her were her teammates, and they were dead.

She suddenly felt the grief wash over her, her only friends are dead, and yet she survived.

Why did she survive? Why was she so damn important? Why not Jace or Lynda?

_Deal with your survivor's guilt later!_

She snaps out of it and crushes the vial in her hand,"Your in my head no need to yell"

The dust flares into a chaotic ball of fire, and while it is still tiny she shoves it through a crack in the coffin. Within seconds it explodes upwards, clearing the dirt from the coffin, then she climbs to the top and shakes off some of the dirt that fell on her.

"How long was I out?"

_A few weeks_

"Wouldn't I be rotted out a bit?"

_Took care of it when I moved in_

"Nice" A few robotic soldiers emerge and run into the graveyard, pointing guns at them

"You are under arrest for disturbing the grave of Emma Currow and impersonating her. You have ten seconds to surrender" The small platoon of soldiers that came into the graveyard simultaniously move their rifles into a firing position, aiming at her head.

"B but I am Emma Currow!"

"Seven"

"Come on you gotta believe me!"

"Three"

Oh shit, I dont even have a weapon!

_Need a little help?_

YES!

"All units, fire"

The platoon opened fire, while her aura was steadily drained at an alarming speed, being used to block all those bullets. However, she felt changed, different.

"_Let's get started!"_ Her body spoke with her voice but not at her command, as a pitch black knife formed in front of her, made of her aura, which had also changed, stronger and more resilient to the bullets. The change shocked her.

"_I'll strike you all down!"_ Her body lunged forward, dashing through the bullets at one of the soldiers, then slashed through it, and stabbed through the head of the other. When her body pulled the knife out, it changed, forming into a long pole, her spear, but broke into two handles, rapidly expanding into two claymores formed by shadow.

Her body rushed into the soldiers, slashing and hacking through the robots with sublime speed and efficiency. Limbs flew off, electricity spilling from the head as the cpu storage is severed, and hydraulic fluid began to follow her as she continued slashing them apart.

Emma was terrified as her body finished eliminating the last of the soldiers, then she felt in control again, her hands moving how she moved them instead of whatever just had control of her. "What the fuck?!"

_You did ask for help, and I love helping people._ A mental image appears in her head of herself with red hair, licking the knife clean of any oil or hydraulic fluid it had accumulated, making her shiver in fear.

"W what are you, or what am i I?"

_I'm your semblance, locked away for a while. The spirit of the harvester. I was sealed away by your parents when you were born._

"Why?"

_My demonstration should be reason enough. Nearly killed both your parents when you got your first spanking. _The voice giggles, sending more shivers throughout Emma.

_I still remember the fear in their eyes when my knife manifested, when I slashed your mother across the eye whe-_ "STOP"

_Did I strike a nerve? _

"HELL YES YOU DID!"

A pair of feet land on the ground, a hunter standing ready to put her down

"Turn around slowly, and I might consider letting you live."

"Please don't make me hurt you"

_I could do it for you Emmie_

Fuck you.

"Time's up girl"

The hunter raises his pistol and levels it with her head, and fires three shots, her aura breaking under the firepower of the first, and the voice in her head, her semblance, takes over and her aura blocks the next two shots

"_You've done fucked up!"_

She turns around and darts at the man, her knife forming into her hands, then clashing with the barrel of his pistol.

"What the hell are you." His voice calm and steady, almost taunting her efforts.

"_A reaper of the living, ready to end you!"_

The sparks fly from their weapons as he begins to slide backward

"I wasn't really asking"

He is pushed back two feet before she backs off, and he fires three more shots, which are slashed into small particles of metal. Emma watches as her body moves closer to him and kicks into the air off a burst of aura. 'My semblance must be strong, look at all this aura she has burned through, and she isn't even wavering a bit!'

His pistol turns into a knife as well and they dance around in a circle, slashing and stabbing back and forth, dodging each time. The game continues until Emma's semblance formed a claymore and swung it in a horizontal arc, the hunter blocking it but being thrown several meters into the side of a building, which had parts of the wall break and fall on him.

He emerges relatively ok, then is met with the claymore, thrown like a javelin, into his face, it turns his face into a void, a hole with nothing but the sword filling it, which Emma's semblance pulls out.

Soon after, they had to bolt as Goodwitch came after them, being just out of the range of her weapon's gravity effect for about an hour before goodwitch became exhausted at the high speed chase.

They finally stopped somewhere outside Vale, her demon semblance thing running out of aura to propel them, and Emma takes control again.

"What the hell are you?"

_Like I said, I'm your semblance, I am a split personality and voice in your head, whats so hard to understand?_

"How is that a semblance?"

_I didn't make the rules, I just abide by them_

"Your a bloody psychopath!"

_I am an overprotective sister if anything_

"Shut up!"

The voice in her head complies and goes silent while she sits down against a rock in a forest, maybe she's in forever fall, she wondered. This is where her friends first hung out…

The pain and grief hit her again, like a cannonball to the chest, she starts sobbing and sobbing, the tears streaking down her face make it seem like she could cry much moe than a river. She cried for hours bef


	3. A burnt rose

Another Broken Soul

Added into the fray

She woke up, disoriented by a roar, and she gets up with some small difficulty, even if her semblance friend completely remade her body to back before she had been killed, she still hasn't had any food in almost a day, same with water.

"Hey, whats your name?"

_Grace_

"Thats kinda funny"

_Haha, what do you want sweet sister?_

"Some food, and water my sweet sister"

_Ok, flayminon and caviar coming up_

"That would be real nice, but seriously, where the hell are we?"

_Only one forest with permanently red leaves that I know of, Forever Fall_

"...Fuck….Me….Silly"

_Why? _

"Forever Fall has been less than quiet… Grimm are moving in at an alarming pace"

_I can handle them easily_

"And when Goodwitch is alerted and comes after us? Your aura is more than impossible to miss, like a feeling of death and dread"

_Ass_

"Let's try stealth for now, maybe find some weapon to help us out in our quest"

The hike through Forever Fall was started, and the girl narrowly avoided beowolf packs as well as hydras, small grimm with razor sharp teeth and attack in swarms at a time with barely any exoskeleton protection. The near constant replacement of a member had earned them the name, and many nevermore and Taijutsu snakes. Her first fuck up was nearly her last, had a girl who had left Beacon permanently and went rogue not been in the area

SHIT!, Emma cried in her head when her branch broke and she landed in front of an ursa.

"No no no no no!" The bear like grimm charges her and she struggles to get up and run away from it, but it is very close behind her.

A figure in a charcoal stained cloak plants a large scythe into the ground and fires two shots directly into the Ursa's head, ending its life as the body plants down against the ground, quickly followed by the slamming of the blunt end of the scythe's head down into what remains of the bear's face, cracking the ground and mask with how much force was in the hit.

As the figure lifts it's red scythe onto her back, marks where it has suffered significant fire damage are visible, mainly around the handle, and Emma is shocked and also thankful for the mysterious stranger.

"You should get out of here, Goodwitch won't be so kind"

"I uh, don't have anywhere to go"

"You really aren't a graverobber are you?"

"No, I just woke up in my own coffin two weeks ago"

"That is a bit unbelievable, what's your name?"

"Emma Currow, you?"

"Ruby Rose"

"Oh, I remember hearing what happened two years ago, was it true?"

"Yeah, every bit"


	4. Taking a walk

_**The burnt Rose**_

_**Takes a gamble**_

Both girls continued through the forest, Ruby slashing down any grimm who get into their way. Several minutes in Emma asked the question on her mind since Ruby saved her.

"Why did you save me?"

"I felt like it" She shoots a charging beowolf in the face

"Last time a Beacon student asked for help you let a Taijutsu Snake drag them off a cliff"

"You didn't ask"

"Not really the point"

"Let's just say I know what it's like, what you went through" A deathstalker charges them and Ruby flexes her wrists, and punches her glove covered hands together, a metallic ding answering the action, and she darts forward and punches the deathstalker, cracking it's shell, then fires small red explosives that rip through her gloves, exposing a red colored Ember Cecilia.

The scorpion grimm stumbled back and Ruby landed two more punches, breaking it's mask and destroying it, then firing multiple explosives into it until it was moving only due to the blasts.

"That was Yang's weapon right?"

"Yep, made a copy of all my teammates weapons so I could always remember them"

To prove her point Ruby draws Myrtenaster and Gambol Shroud, each in a black and red color scheme, then sheaths them back under her cloak.

"Shouldn't you have a weapon?"

"I did, before I died. Now Grace has to protect me, but with her aura so strong Im scared that Goodwitch or Ozpin will notice"

"Grace?"

"Kind of a voice in my head that can use my body to protect me when I cant, her aura is ridiculously strong and shadows seem to bend to her will"

Wow, cute, innocent, and crazy. Mom I hit the jackpot.

Ruby rolls her eyes at her own sarcastic comment as she fires shot after shot into a group of beowolves before they can get close.

After several silent minutes' save the high speed slashing and shooting from the broken rose, a nevermore flies overhead, and she ties a black ribbon that is on her left arm to her scythe like Blake would using Gambol shroud, and throws her scythe as hard as she can after the nevermore, who dodges it. Ruby then guides the scythe back to the nevermore, and uses the ribbon to activate the trigger and fire a shot, the recoil turning the scythe into a spinning whirlwind of death, which slices through the nevermore's wings as it tries to fire some feathers.

"That takes care of that" Ruby pulls back her weapon and continues on after collapsing it, leaving Emma behind for a few seconds while she admires the reaper's quick actions, then rushes to catch up with her.

"So, any new friends?"

"No"

"Can I be your friend then?"

"Probably not"

"Why?"

"I'm not the people person I was"

"C'mon Ruby please, everyone needs some kind of social interaction, and killing grimm doesn't count"

"I'll go where I want, and you can tag along if you want, but aren't you going to go back?"

"No, I have a lack of friends, and everyone thinks Ima graverobber"

"No family?"

"Don't want to see them ever again" Her words come out laced with venom.

"Ok then" Ruby, having long kept her emotions under a mask, decided there that she would give it one more chance with this girl, and see where it gets her, after all two years of suicide like missions tends to make someone miss the comfort of others.

The girls walked in silence, Emma being a bit nervous around Ruby, when an especially sneaky beowolf pack jumps down from the trees and runs their claws through Ruby's back, and Emma quickly moves forward and slides down, picking up Myrtenaster as it falls out from under her, and stabbing it into the grimm's eyes, then turned to face the rest as Ruby stands up slowly, her back hurting like a bitch.

"Mother fucking wolves!" Ruby fires a shot into the nearest one, and it finds itself headless, while another goes to attack Ruby again, her previous injury being healed by her aura leaves her wide open, so Emma jumps in front of it and takes the hit, skirting across the ground.

"Emma!"

_Ow you dumb ass!_

'Fuck you Grace'

Ruby, angry and full of rage at the grimm, slashes it until it is completely gone, firing rounds off as her scythe cleaves through it to kill it's packmates.

Once the beowolves are dealt with Ruby calms down and helps Emma up, the girl had sat down to watch after Ruby went into rage mode.

"You ok?"

"Yeah, my aura will have it gone in a few minutes"

"Umm, not to be rude but do you have anything to eat?"

"Want some beowolf stew?"

'EWW!' "Sure"

_You aren't actually going to eat it are you?_

'Im hungry as a starved ursa, so yeah'

By the time Ruby finishes stripping and cooking the beowolves on a fire made of twigs that she lit with some fire dust powder the cracked moon rises into the sky, looking like a half broken mirror, and Emma has fallen asleep sitting against the tree next to Ruby.

"emma...Emma…"

Emma eventually opens her eyes slowly, and Ruby pushes her slightly, earning a small glare from her.

"What?"

"Foods done"

"Ok…"

Once again Emma fell asleep, so Ruby got a spoon out of an "emergency" supply case in her pocket so she could eat it. The pack itself was something Weiss got Ruby on her birthday, so she could eat civilly and transport dust crystals, three to be precise. After dipping the spoon into the stew, resting in a cauldron of rocks she fused together by melting parts with a dust crystal radiating heat, she held the spoon up to Emma, who subconsciously opened her mouth, so Ruby fed her. After Ruby had put the spoon into Emma's mouth she woke up, and blushed quite heavily once she realized what was happening. After that the two took turns eating with the spoon until both were full, and then climbed two different trees and went to sleep, Emma still having a small tint of red on her cheeks.

Early into the morning Ruby climbs up Emma's tree and pokes her a few times to wake her up.

"Five more minutes…"

Ruby proceeds to then shake her until she is fully awake.

"Morning Emm"

"Morning, did you have to shake me awake?"

"I did" Ruby jumps down, Emma following after a few seconds.

"So, what are your plans?"

"My plans?"

"Where are you going?"

Emma shrugs "I have no Idea, just away from here"

"What happened to you anyways? Reports say a rogue hunter wiped you all out, but no hunters have been listed as rouge for a whole year, and the other hunters listed as rogue are currently in Atlas waging that long and bloody war against the kingdom"

"... I honestly have no clue what it was, it seemed exactly like a grimm, but it was humanoid…it also had a sword"

Ruby nods as a signal for her to continue while looking a bit confused.

"At first I thought it was a member of the white fang that had killed my friend, but it didn't have a soul of light like we do, it had a soul of pure darkness"

"Grimm don't have souls though because they are pure darkness"

A small tear slips from Emma's eyes and her voice becomes shaky, getting worse as she continues

"It's sword was something of nightmares, when it slashed Carver his aura stopped existing, like it was locked up again, and he couldn't escape…"

Emma continues to retell the story, tears pouring from her eyes by the time she finishes.

Ruby, feeling sad for her and having been through something similar, tried her best to comfort the grieving huntress in training.

After ten minutes she sheds her last tear, but the unsteadiness of her voice continues to be evident.

"So… there's a rural town nearby, maybe we can get you a new weapon"

"I w would like th that"

"You gonna be ok?"

"I i th think so"

Ruby and Emma sat for at least seven more minutes on the ground with Ruby having her arms around her to comfort her, unknown to Ruby however, Emma was enjoying the hug, and never said anything not because she was still depressed and saddened at the thinking of her friends' fate, but because she just wanted to stay there as long as possible with Ruby. She wasn't fully aware of this reason herself, and once she realized it she blushed and jumped up, a bit embarrassed and hoping Ruby wouldn't have had the same thought as to why she just sat there.

"Well uh, which way to the town?"


	5. Ruby the weaponsmith

_**A moment of peace**_

_**In the preparation of war**_

The two had spent the day walking, sometimes exchanging small talk, but usually settling for quiet.

Once they could see the city Ruby's scroll made a beep showing it had a faint connection to the wifi. Ruby had her scroll's connection range heavily boosted since she hardly had a need to visit towns, but still wanted to be able to catch up on the latest news about the grimm.

"Reports say a humanoid grimm has been spotted, and has decimated any who it detects, reports also say the grimm has an aura, which has sent the HA (Hunters' Association) into shock as this makes absolutely no sense. The beast carries a sword which can seal away one's aura with the tiniest prick. It is unknown if this is permanent, as none have survived a confrontation. Witnesses have also seen it command grimm as though it was their ruler, and has a higher intelligence than any known grimm. One such witness saw it ride a nevermore over a river, then use the nevermore to engage a group of groundside hunters, and then leapt off and engaged them itself. Currently it has claimed three full hunter squads as well as several soldiers around the Atlas borders, and most of the rogue hunters near there. IT has yet to lay siege to the city, but is patrolling the borders. Efforts to remove it have been met with blood."

"Damn, that thing is scary"

"That's what killed me and my friends!"

"Well, at least one survived"

_Two, two survived_

'Shut it Grace' "So, what's this town called?"

"This is Shearpoint, named for the large cliff that it is at the base of, and yes, the cliff is very steep. It just ends and the ground vanishes. Not even the tiniest bump sticks out. Some call it Beacon's watch since it is the closest town to Beacon, and is the quickest to be reinforced by hunters should the need arise"

"Got it"

After another hour of walking they were at the main gate, a poorly constructed wooden wall that encircles the small town.

"Hello? Anyone on guard duty?"

"Of course there is." A rabbit faunus and a cat faunus walk out from under the shadows of the guard towers, which are empty and really just for show to make bandits think they'll be spotted.

"So, who are you?" The cat faunus asks, his ears twitching a bit as he stares over at a boarbatusk watching them from a small patch of trees.

"Name's Ruby Rose" She hands him her scroll

"And this one?" The rabbit faunus wasn't as nice as velvet, infact if he didn't have those ears you would swear he was a predator faunus.

"This is my friend Emily"

"Last name?"

"Grace"

Emma winces a bit at that, but the guards don't seem to notice, too occupied at watching the grimm.

"Go on in" The cat hands back Ruby's scroll and the two head in through a door at the base of one of the towers.

Moments later gunshots are heard as well as the death throes of a boarbatusk that got too close to the defense cannon, a large cannon situated on top of the only building above one story, which is four stories tall and has a cannon that fires multiple rifles in place of a cannonball, making a brutal end to anyone or thing stupid enough to get in effective range.

"According to this map the general store is over there, and the Hunters' Association store is over there, so food or weapons first?"

"Food, then weapons"

"Aww, fine"

Ruby goes over to the general store, which sells a lot of food, and some mechanical parts and small grains of dust for emergencies, and they stock up on food, storing it in a backpack Ruby bought and lays down while Emma browses everything she finds interesting.

Emma ends up getting some snacks to add to the food and they start heading over to the HA store.

"So, you make weapons often?"

"Only to keep from getting rusty and when a friend needs one, but the materials are hard to come by or really expensive"

"Can you make me a weapon?"

"I'll think on that"

"Ok"

The two browse the store, Ruby checking out ammo and dust infused rounds while Emma checks all the weapons, and tests a few of them, but finding none that she actually likes.

"Can you please make one for me?"

"Well, they do have a lot of parts here, but they cost a lot of lien…, so how about a deal? I'll make you a weapon, you'll pay me back by tagging along on my next couple of missions until I make enough lien to cover it"

"Deal"

"What type of weapon do you want?"

She takes Ruby's scroll and signs into her HA account and pulls up her weapon's blueprint and shows it it Ruby

"I can do that, take some lien and go get us a hotel room for the night and I'll get the parts"

Emma, as per Ruby's instructions goes to the closest thing to a hotel they have, an apartment complex, and rents a room for a day. Ruby returns after an hour with bags of different parts and knocks on the door to the room, and Emma lets her in.

"How'd you find me?"

"I used my aura to sense where you had gone, took a lot out of me though" She sounds exhausted, and sets the bags down and flops onto the bed for a nap, and Emma sits down next to her and pats her head.

"Please quit touching me"

"Are you going to hurt me if I dont?"

"no…"

Emma keeps petting Ruby's head, and she smiles into the bed.

'Its nice to finally relax, and have a friend, I'd almost forgot how to be nice to people' Ruby thought.

'She's so cute when she isn't killing things' Emma thinks

After a good fifteen minutes Ruby ends up falling asleep, and Emma follows after relaxing next to her.

The next day a knock on the door wakes them both up and Ruby goes to answer it, telling Emma to hide somewhere.

"Hello?" Ruby rubbs her eyes and yawns.

"Oh, Miss Rose, I was unaware you would be staying here." She always has to punctuate her sentences…

"Hello Goodwitch, what brings you by?"

"I'm looking for a girl who desecrated Emma Currow's grave and was last seen dressed as her. Some people say she was seen in this town last night."

"Haven't seen her, now can I _please_ go back to sleep?"

"Can you look for her?"

"Im really tired, and your really pushing your luck"

"Good day then Miss Rose."

"Bye bye" Ruby practically slams the door in Goodwitch's face, pushing her hair up from the wind, and she lets out a sigh and continues her pursuit.

"Yay, goodbitch is gone" Ruby flops on the couch since it's closer to the bed, and Emma walks into the kitchen and starts cooking.

"How do you like your steak?"

"As close to charcoal as possible"

"...Ok then, one burnt to hell steak coming up"

"Thanks, but why steak for breakfast?"

"It's one of the few things not in a preserve state, so we need to eat it before it spoils"

"k" Ruby falls asleep on the couch while Emma cooks, a bit of drool on her lips at the thought of some actual food instead of grimm meat.

A good hour later Ruby was poked, several times. She stirred a bit, and when she made no sign of waking up, Emma sat on her chest.

"Ahh, Get off!"

Emma gets up smiling "C'mon, foods done"

"It took you an hour to get it done?" The reaper makes sure her voice has a bit of criticism in it, and glances at the clock.

"No, I was waiting for you to wake up. Your food is in the microwave, I kept it warm for you"

"Aww how sweet" Ruby says sarcastically, a bit pissed that she wasn't woken up when it was cooked to perfection. "Fix me something to drink?"

"What would you want your highness?"

"Orange Juice"

"As my queen says"

Emma curtseys and walks into the kitchen, fixing Ruby her juice as she walks in and gets her steak, and tears into it savagely, surprising Emma who stays quiet and sets her juice down.

"This is good"

"I do cook well"

"No complaints here" Ruby continues eating, and once she finishes her food she walks into the bedroom and looks through the mechanical parts she bought yesterday.

"Can I watch you build it?"

"Sure"

After what seemed to be an eternity, but was actually just nineteen hours full of Emma passing out and waking up, eating and drinking, and watching the rose go about constructing Emma's weapon with absolute focus and precise attention to detail, as well as

a lack of any form of breaks while she is ensnared mentally in her work, once she has finished creating the spear, carbine weapon she lays down, feeling the hours of work hit at once, sending her into an exhausted sleep on the ground, while Emma lays on the couch, long since passed out.


	6. Training day

_**The Rose**_

_**And the Raven**_

"Emma, wake up"

zzz

"Wake up"

zzz

**THUMP!**

"Ow what the hell?"

"C'mon get up"

"Get off me then!"

"Push me off"

Emma unceremoniously shoves Ruby off of her and onto the floor, then stands up and brushes herself off. "Did you finish fixing my baby?"

"Yep" Ruby's silver eyes seem full of pride at the mention of her work, and she dashes off to get it for her.

Ruby returns holding a long locked box and smiles

"We're going to go practice in the forest, you can see it then~"

"You teaser, I wanna see it now" She pouts.

"heh, c'mon, lets go"

And with that, the girls climb out onto the roof and dash towards the forest, Ruby slowing down just a bit so Emma can keep up. Ruby manages to "find" a wide open place in the forest. After moving the trees away she tosses Emma the box containing her weapon.

"Talon!" She squeals happily, and lifts her weapon out, revealing a large cylinder that cones into a spear tip on the end, and has an opening for her to hold the actual spear itself through the cylinder, which is mainly to protect her hand. It is half the length of Ruby's Crescent Rose and is solid black with outlines of white to form a feather pattern.

Emma takes a few practice swings and stabs, then switches it over to gun form, looking like a pump shotgun, but is actually a carbine rifle. Another change into it's fully extended form and it has shed the excess metal meant to protect her, and it's shaft is as long as Ruby's scythe, with the blade extending another four inches. Once again she takes some practice swings, enjoying the reunion with her favorite weapon.

"The Raven of Beacon is back in action!"

"Raven?"

"It's a nickname I got from my teammates, on account of my speed and aerial preference of attacks"

"Ok, wanna spar?"

"No aura infused attacks or ranged fire, k?"

"k"

The two walks over to the edge of the circle, then clear out more trees so they can have their weapons fully extended.

"Bring it on Raven" Ruby chuckles.

"You first Rose" Emma gives her a grin, and moves forward, her spear at half extended form.

"Seems your going first" Ruby gets in a defensive stance, and breaks it once Emma is within hitting range and swings her scythe at her, which glances off the defensive metal, and Emma quickly expands it to full while stabbing it at Ruby, the spear hitting her and launching her back, then she quickly folds it back into defense mode.

"Good one"

"Thanks, this thing is my pride and joy"

Ruby sprints in again, this time when her swing bounces she goes with the momentum and tries an uppercut, which she dodges by backstepping it. Emma quickly swings at her, and she blocks it , the blade resting next to her cheek as their weapons grind against each other, neither side wanting to budge.

"How long can you hold on?"

"Long enough Raven" Ruby slides back while swinging her scythe into Emma's legs, making her fall onto her back, she narrowly avoids a slam from the back of the scythe's head by rolling out of the way, then she stands and extends her spear to full reach.

"Come at me"

Ruby spins her scythe around herself, creating a whirlwind of death as she walks towards Emma. The Raven's response is to leap into the air and stab the spear down, hitting Ruby's shoulder, while the scythe blade knocks her spear off, turning the hit into a glancing blow.

The Reaper speeds and slashes at Emma, her aura dropping quickly with each successful hit.

Giving her no break Ruby hits her side full on with the back of her sweetheart's blade, bringing Emma's aura down into the red zone while she stays down, feeling sore all over from the repeated hits.

"Ow…"

"Good match, you injured my shoulder some" As if to emphasise that she rubs her shoulder and sits by Emma.

"I managed to injure the fastest and scariest hunter on the planet" She smiles.

"Scariest?"

"You killed three goliaths and two nevermores at the same time, while being chased by several packs of beowolves"

"Yeah… but it was for a good reason"

"Still, it's scary"

After a few minutes they get up, and have another round.

Ruby locks her sweetheart into ranged mode and puts the safety on, then rests it by the tree and draws Myrtenaster.

"This will be difficult without using Dust"

"And I think I might win"

Without another word, Ruby springs into action and rushes Emma, closing the gap quickly, but having her slashes and thrusts blocked by the half expanded spear, Emma uses this to slice back, hitting Ruby a few times.

"Ow, that hurt…"

"Im sorry Ruby" Emma smiles and expands the spear, the tip smacking into her leg and pushing her leg behind her, and she steps forward and slams the shaft into her face, then quickly rolls away as Ruby stabs at her and misses.

"I think it needs more Dust, shame it would attract too much attention"

"Yep" The reaper turned fencer dashes forward, stabbing in a flurry, pushing Emma back while rose petals flash into the air due to her semblance, helping her speed up her stabs.

"Damn!" Emma starts expanding her spear and leaps to the side, Ruby coming out of her semblance and stabbing at her, which she dodges again and spins her spear, the tip making a small slash on Ruby's cheek, then Emma steps forward and the other end smacks her across the face.

"What is it with you and smacking me?"

"It's effective"

She spins her spear around a few times, then stabs out at Ruby, who ducks under it. In a scary display of speed her spear retracts almost instantly, letting Emma block with it and back up. She follows by leaping into the air and stabbing down with her spear, The fencing reaper dodges it and Talon pierces the ground. Emma spins down around it and kicks Ruby in the face, then pulls it out and retracts it in the air, landing on her feet and smiling at Ruby, whose aura hit the red mark finally.

The girls end up fighting another two rounds, Ruby winning again with Gambol Shroud, and losing with Ember Cecilia.

"If I could have used projectiles I would have fucked you up"

"Maybe" She winks and turns her weapon into it's carbine form and puts it on her back. "Or maybe I would have done better at kicking your ass"

Ruby smiles and rubs the taller girl's head and they move out through the forest, wandering aimlessly.

They stopped when they noticed all the red eyes staring at them from the shadows.


	7. A bit of fun

_**finely skewered grimm**_

_**well diced wolves**_

"Well, give em hell" Ruby vanishes, leaving behind the bunrt rose petals, A pair of eyes vanish from the crowd, and the rest dart at Emma, revealing a horde of beowolves. She bends over and spins her spear on her back, the tip slashing any beowolf that gets too close. With one push of a button, the blunt end of the spear opens into a barrel, then fires a musket shot out, and it rips through multiple beowolves. Ruby bounds back over to Emma, who jumps over her and stabs a pursuing beowolf's face, while Ruby slices through the ones in front of her.

"Well, this is kinda fun" Emma rolls behind Ruby, who spins her scythe in front of her to create a shield, which Emma shoots through with her Carbine, the bullets going quickly through the scythe without hitting it.

"Until one gouges out your eye, heh"

Emma smiles at the huntress and continues the hail of bullets.

" Ruby cheers, while Emma smiles at Ruby and pulls her spear out.

"That was really fun, I think I'm going to

"So no one can tell who you are and try to throw you in jail"

"Fine…what would I need to change?"

"A different hair and eye color would be good, and as long as we stay away from Goodwitch you shouldn't get noticed, since Ozpin wont really care after my assurances"

"…But I like my hair…"

"I like it too but we gotta be safe, I don't want you going to jail"

"Like they could take me"

"Then they'd kill you…"

"...A change of looks sounds good now"

"Alright, come on then"

After several visits to the general store, each time to try a different hair dye or contact lens color, Emma finally settles on a new style, albeit reluctantly. Her new style is short hair, colored solid black, with blue highlights on the edges. Grace uses her semblance to change Emma's eye color to a dark red, the same color as Ruby's hair, using the colored contacts as a reference. Emma dresses in a white shirt with long sleeves and black lines along the sleeves to make a feather pattern contrasting her weapon's. She also wears a pair of faded black blue jeans.

"Grace changed your eye color?"

"She said that her semblance was light manipulation"

"Your semblance is a voice in your head that has it's own semblance?"

"She may not even be my semblance, I could just be insane"

"True"

"Excuse me Miss Rose."

'Oh my god I'm going to kill her' "Yes Goodwitch?"

Emma looks away, pretending to try and read a sign on one of the shops.

"I have a message from Ozpin, he wanted me to deliver it before you left"

"Spit it out already" She rolls her eyes.

"Ozpin wants you to check out a known grimm hotspot near the Mistral Chasm."

"Thank you, now go back to Beacon and continue kissing ass"

"Miss Rose! That language is-"

"Not tolerated at Beacon. But wait, this isn't Beacon is it? And I'm not a student anymore, so fuck off" Ruby grabs Emma's arm and pulls her along with her, leaving Goodwitch practically steaming with anger.

"You really pissed her off"

"Good, dumb bitch has done nothing but piss me off since the incident. Telling me it was all my fault and scolding me not even a week after they had died" The anger in her voice was quite evident and Emma places her arm around Ruby and rubs her shoulder as they walk.

"Just don't kill her, ok?"

"I'll wait till there won't be any witnesses" She lets out a sarcastic and dry sounding laugh.

They walked in silence, Emma fearing Ruby might turn around and murder Goodwitch on a whim, while Ruby has flashbacks to the scolding she recieved by Goodwitch. After an hour of walking the two stopped in a resturant and ordered some food. Ruby getting a steak with some assorted vegetables, while Emma had a lobster, shell already removed by the cook.

"So your semblance, it controls light?"

"She, and I guess. During her fight with another hunter she continually made weapons of shadows"

"How'd the fight go?"

"…He was killed…"

"Oh… explains why your a wanted criminal among the kingdoms"

"I wasn't in control though!"

"Don't really think they care Raven"

Emma cuts off a piece of the lobster and eats it while Ruby discusses a dream she had, where she had killed werewolf like grimm at her mother's grave, then went on to have a near similar experience trying to save a family trapped in a cemetery by beowolves. It served it's purpose by cutting the tension in the air, which Emma hadn't really noticed, despite creating it.

Several minutes after eating, Ruby and Emma were racing across the rooftops towards their apartment building. A few times the cannon fired, scaring Emma shitless, enough so that a few times she stumbled, and once she fell.

When they make it back to their apartment Ruby opens up her scroll and calls Ozpin to see what he has planned for her to do.

"Hello Ruby" Ozpin's face flashed on the screen, he was wearing a normally unusual smile, but Ruby and Ozpin had grown into good friends during the grieving of the rest of team RWBY.

"Hey Oz" Ruby smiles back. "Whatcha got for me?"

"Reports of a few deadly grimm ransacking supply routes far south from your location, boarbatusks mainly, but the area is home to an abundance of Death Stalkers and Hydra swarms. Ah, here we are, the name is Blackheart Woods, hello Emma, I trust you'll be helping Miss Rose?"

Within a moment shock and fear swept over Emma. How on Remnant could he possibly know?

"You have no need to be worked up Miss Currow, since Ruby is with you right now I doubt you're the evil graverobber Goodwitch went on about, but did you really kill Kenny?"

"Uh huh, it was an accident though, my semblance took over…"

Ozpin gives her a confused stare, but Ruby waves her hand as if to say drop it, so he does.

"I trust the mission pay has been adequate"

"Yep"

"Need any ammo refills?"

"Nope"

"OZPIN OPEN THIS DOOR"

"Oh...Goodwitch is here"

Ruby smiles. "Bye"

"Please tell me you did not call her anything"

"Not ye- "OZPIN"

"Gotta go, bye"

And with that moment, the door was broken down by a furious woman, who immediately started nagging to Ozpin about keeping Ruby on a tighter leash and giving her training in proper manners, something Ozpin was, sadly, getting very used to, while Ruby smiled and turned off her scroll.

"So, Blackheart Woods? Sounds nice"

"Largest concentration of Hydras found within seven years, only one still in one piece after being found, plus gigantic Death Stalker nests. Gonna be a blast…"

"And I have to go too huh?"

"Yep"

"God, damn, it"

The two exchange some jokes and go to sleep, Ruby staring at the window in anticipation, not fully noticing how Emma was pressed against her until a few minutes later, then realized it would be awkward to shove her away now, so she lets her stay there, and soon the reaper is slaying beowolves in her dreams.


	8. Meet the Queen

_**grimm slaying**_

_**with a scheduled interruption**_

Early that morning Emma and Ruby departed after rechecking their provisions and getting a few dust crystals for Emma's spear. Given the two girls' fast speed they covered ground quickly, Emma eventually let Grace take over when her aura was running low, but Ruby seemed perfectly fine at this point. "_Hello Ruby" _

"Um, is this Grace?"

"_Yes it is, Emma got tired so Im going to be using her body until we stop to make camp"_

"Ok"

The pair traveled on for hours before Ruby spoke to Grace again.

"So, you control light?"

"_Yes I do" _Small orbs of light float around Emma for a few seconds, then she makes them vanish. "_Impressed?"_

"Some"

"_At least your honest"_

After the moon had just popped up over the horizon they stopped to make camp. Ruby had started getting tired a few miles back and was glad to take a break while Grace looked completely fine.

"So, what type of person are you?"

"_A don't fuck with my sister or I'll decapitate you type of person" _A few swords made of shadows appear around them to emphasize her point, then she makes them vanish.

"Ok" Ruby squeaks out and looks through the bag of supplies, and starts setting up a tent, which Grace does not help with at all. Once Ruby is finished Emma takes her body back and crawls into the tent, given her exhaustiveness due to having used her aura she goes in slowly, and Ruby finds herself paying a bit too much attention to the whole thing, her face turning red once she realizes where her eyes were. The two end up going to sleep wrapped up in the same blanket, which Emma steals for herself upon rolling over, so Ruby uses her cloak instead.

They awoke to screams and smoke, as well as grimm rampaging around them. Emma sprang to alert and rushed outside with Ruby. An onslaught of nevermore feathers kept them on the defense as boarbatusks rolled into them during the gaps. the girls occasionally got a shot off at one of the grimm, then a familiar sight made Emma's blood freeze in it's flow, as a grimm wielding a sword stepped into the clearing, and the rest backed off. Ruby sprinted at it, and Emma was too frozen with fear to warn her. The grimm sliced through the scythe, then Ruby. It turned it's gaze on her, then approached. She found her body frozen, even Grace was quiet. The grimm sliced open her legs and torso, keeping her alive but cutting deep enough to immobilize her and open her chest. It walked away as the grimm feasted on Emma, who died a quiet, sad, and oh so unneeded death.

Emma slowly woke up and started angrily screaming. Ruby woke up with her and followed her gaze to the open tent flap, and a familiar figure in a gray suit holding both girls' weapons and twirling a cane. Ruby got out quickly and cautiously, watching him with the most hateful glare ever. Emma ran at him, furious that he stole Talon and Ruby was sure she would have Grace help her. She was so sure of this, so very sure that she wouldn't get hurt, let alone impaled by a quickly extending whip with a sharp spear like tip directly in her heart, just how Blake had died. When Ruby saw that was exactly what happened tears began to well up in her eyes. Then a club came down on her head, and she opened her eyes to being burned alive in a warehouse, screaming in terror, fear, and anguish.

Both girls woke up screaming and gasping for air, then hugged each other tightly.

"Emma!" Ruby had tears running down her face, as did Emma. Both had suffered the worst nightmare they had had in days, and the first in each other's presence. Grace rolled her eyes mentally, as she lacked the body to do so.

"I thought the grimm killed you!"

"I thought that kid impaled you!"

Both clinged to the other for dear life, and that moment held a spark for them that they hadn't been fully realizing they had been gathering the kindling for. The moment of sadness slowly turned into a tight hug, and finally a passed out rest, both still having their arms wrapped around the other.

Emma was the first to wake up, and the first to notice how the two went to sleep. Her face turned into a very vivid bright red, and she nudged Ruby awake with her head. The reaper just turned over, and somehow managed to move Emma with her as she rolled. This made Emma make an Eep sound, which woke Ruby up mid roll, and once she finished she noticed what Emma had, the fact they still haven't let go of each other. Both girls faces were now equally red, and neither wanted to make the awkward letting go part happen.

Luckily for them, a large roar, as well as smaller roars, are heard nearby. Quickly they both scramble out of the tent and move towards the sounds, grabbing their weapons and putting the awkward wake up in the back of their minds.

Coming to a halt at the sight of the commotion, both stopped and watched as a girl slightly taller than Emma was dodging under beowolf claws and jumping over rolling boarbatusks, her black hair moving behind her like shadows. In her hand was what appeared to be a glass knife, the blade being seven inches long and almost an inch in width. Every now and then she would nick an attacker, and the blade seemed to be filling with the black liquid that is the blood of the grimm. Emma and Ruby watched with a bit of interest, but mostly just confusion. Once the blade was full her work's purpose was shown. The blade began radiating with a pale glow, and when the mystery girl channeled her aura into the blade during her next swing,the blood shot out in the motion of the swing, forming a shockwave. The blood somehow cut through every single grimm, which made Ruby and Emma shiver slightly at the thought of who this could be.A king Tajitsu moved after her, and she snapped her fingers. In an instant a man dashed in front of it with a greatsword in his hands, the blade sharpened recently from the look of it. In one successful slice it's head came off. The other head looked confused for a second, then the man's blade glowed palely, like the moon. A set of glyphs appeared and shot ice beams into the snake and held in in place, while the girl stabbed her dagger into the snake and filled it up, then the man split his greatsword into two slightly smaller straight-swords, and cut off the grimm's mask, then sliced into it's head and jumped off. The sword in his left hand had a sun like glow, while the one in his right had a moonlight glow like the greatsword. He recombined the two into the greatsword, now having a sunlight glow and he places it in a sheath on his back.

The two turned towards the Reaper and the Raven, and walked over, the man using his aura to wipe off the black blood that landed on him during his decapitation, and his hair was a menacing red, the exact color of human blood when oxidized. His eyes were two different colors, one was a vibrant almost shining yellow, his right. The other was a deep ocean blue, his left. He had a grin on his face which faded after his quick performance. The girl had black hair that came a little bit past her shoulders, and had two ice blue eyes. The girl licks the knife clean of any excess blood, then puts it in her sheath.

"Hi"

"Hi…"

"Hope I didn't scare you two"

"She does get carried away easily."

"N no we are fine"

"Good, so who are you two?"

"I'm Ruby Rose, and this is Crescent Rose" Ruby unfolds her scythe and stands it up so they can view it and all of it's amazingness.

"I'm Emma Currow and this is Talon" Emma converts her spear from carbine mode to fully extended and stabs the spear tip into the ground.

"My name is Jace and these are my resonance blades" The man shows them his greatsword, then splits it in two and recombines it under the moon's resonant power and resheathes it.

"And I'm Jade and this is my knife, Blood Reaver" She shows them her knife, still pulsing with an eerie glow since it was filled from the Taijutsu Snake.

"So where you two headed?"

"The trade route in Blackheart Woods. Gotta clear out some grimm"

"Oh we'll tag along too"

"ok…"

A few more grimm run out toward them, mostly Beowolves, with a small school of hydras. Jace points his greatsword at them and it glows, lighting the area up with glyphs. Each time a glyph gets touched it explodes upward in impaling ice spikes, killing the grimm instantly.

"Such nuisances"

"Jace, be nice"

"Yes mistress"

Ruby and Emma stay uncomfortably silent as they all approach Blackheart Forest in search of the offending Boarbatusks, and to remove any other grimm presence.


	9. A quick display of power

_**A walk**_

_**In the woods**_

"Almost there Emma"

"I know"

"Would mistress like to walk now?"

"Getting tired already Jace?"

"Indeed"

the pair had been sprinting for the past few miles, Jace saving his aura so everyone had been going slowly compared to normal speeds, and Ruby going very slowly compared to her usual speed.

Within another ten minutes they were assaulted by rolling boarbatusks, so they reacted.

One went after Jace directly, and he used a glyph to redirect it into it's packmates, making most of them spiral out, which Ruby dealt with by shooting the ones with their belly exposed. A group that got up went after Jade, who used her knife's power to slice them in half, the arc wave of blood hardened with her aura easily crushing the plates of the boarbatusks. Emma made a mental note not to piss her off, and stabbed her spear into the ground when a boarbatusk got close, and it rolls up the shaft of the spear, making her move her hands to avoid them being squashed, but still keeping the spear up. The grimm went off onto the ground and into a tree, bouncing off, and being met with the upside down sight of Emma having Talon in carbine mode, and she pumps it like the shotgun it seems to be, a small red light clicking on the barrel. The boarbatusk was erased in a blazing bullet that made it dissolve into a black ash cloud.

"Fire?"

"You did ask why I bought the Dust crystals" Emma grins and pumps the carbine again, switching the barrel light to white, which increases impact and velocity, each shot chipping away the plating on the boar grimm, and carving holes in their unprotected bellies.

"Cool" The reaper grins and continues firing her beautiful scythe.

"May I take care of them all mistress?"

"you girls wanna keep fighting?" Jade has had Jace pin down two boarbatusks and she is using their blood to fund a brutal shockwave slice spree, but the boarbatusks just keep coming.

"Nah, I wanna see what Jace can do" Emma smiles and steps back, then aura jumps into a tree, and Ruby follows her, while Jade gets in the tree next to them smiling. The remainder of the boarbatusks regroup and rush at Jace, who separates his greatsword, and plunges the moon resonance blade into the ground and approaches them.

"Sol, scatter."

His other sword, glows brighter and he begins glowing with it, then vanishes into a statue of fire, which explodes when a boarbatusk hits it, while he reappears and stabs into a boarbatusk's mask while it's rolling, stopping it and cracking the mask, then incinerating it. He swings the sword at another boarbatusk rolling at him and it cleaves it apart, then both halves ignite. He continues stabbing and slicing through the plates of the boarbatusks, which are usually unchippable, each casualty being ignited and erased.

"Holy shit…"

"His semblance allows his body to resonate certain types of energy. He uses his body as the medium for the power contained within those ancient swords to activate their true power"

"They dont look ancient to me"

"That would be due to the fact he spent years cleaning, sharpening, and restoring them"

"Whats powering them?" Rub finally adds to the conversation.

"You couldn't tell this by looking, but they were carved from giant dust crystals. The crystals were special in the fact that human, nor faunus could use them, nor do they seem to disappear as used. Once they run out of energy they are rechargeable from aura, which he has plenty of"

"Is that why he didn't use any aura when we ran?"

"He is a bit overly cautious"

Emma rejoins the conversation. "What does the other one do?"

"Ice"

"And together?"

"They tend to…play rough together, they cause explosions if their energy crosses before manifesting as either fire or ice"

"Oh" Both Ruby and Emma nod slowly to show they understand, despite the fact Jade had a tree in between them and couldn't see.

Jace dashes back as his blade runs out of power and switches it with the moon blade. The boarbatusk horde has been replaced by charging beowolves and ursa, seemingly drawn by the squeals of the surviving boars who now watch.

Jace regards them and stares at the leader with a bored expression. "Luna, reap"

In a flash he is gone, leaving a mist of ice shards in his stead, each razor sharp. The unlucky beowolf who went into it and was cut all over. Though it lived it's body was covered in jagged scars.

Appearing ten feet away to the left of the now confused horde, he smiles and snaps, a few glyphs appear alongside him, firing five foot wide pillars of ice through the horde, killing some of them while disrupting the flow of the horde. With them isolated he creates ice clones at the start of each lane, and he and the clones sprint down them, slicing the grimm into fine pieces in seconds. The moment he makes it to the end of his lane he nearly collapses from aura use, dropping his sword as the ice clones and pillars dissipate.

"That, was, fun."

"Ok Jace?"

He nods weakly and falls on the ground, so Jade goes over and pulls him up.

"That was amazing"

"I'm still faster" Ruby grumbles, just barely enough for Emma to hear, and she giggles and falls into step beside the rose.

"Jace, where do you think my sister is right now?"

"I believe the princesses last known sighting came from Atlas, and involved her usual meals"

"How much time would it take us to get there?"

"if we travel at maximum speed and take an airship from Vale it will only take a few days"

"Well, thank you two for the travelling, if you see this girl, I want you to kill her on sight."

Jade hands Emma a picture of an identical looking girl, except her hair color is grey and a series of parallel scars are visible on her right cheek.

"Why?"

"My sister is a despicable monster, a scourge on this planet. She will be purged from all of Remnant before I die"

"Interesting…"

"Also this man is a close friend of hers" She hands Ruby the other picture, a man with a cheshire smile and brown eyes with black hair. He could be another face in the crowd for all Ruby could tell due to the lack of outstanding features. "He helped to make her a monster"

"...ok"

"Stay safe, and try not to get eaten" Jade makes a small laughing sound and carries off Jace.

"Those two did not stay long…"

"I have a feeling we'll meet again"


	10. Get the flock outta here

**_Flying to_**

_**Falling**_

"So what now?"

"Return to civilization so I can contact Ozpin and let him know its done"

"Ok, there is a well developed town a bit to the east"

"Old Vale?"

"No, they renamed it once they managed to secure it again"

"They should really just abandon it"

"This time around they did get some defenses in place that seem to be doing a good job"

"Maybe, but when the Shrieker raids come I don't think those defenses will help"

"They did survive the last few, despite moderate damage to the town"

"So what's it going by?"

"Last Light"

"Doesn't sound like a great name"

"They say if it completely falls again they're gonna scrap the entire project"

"Well, onward then"

"Can we walk? Running is not really my thing"

"Sure"

While they walk through the forest towards Last Light, a few hydras follow them, leaving a noticeable trail from the spiked plates on their entire body, a sign that these one foot long snake/leech creeps have been alive for a very long time. One of them leaps at Ruby in an act of courage, to be met with Talon being fired into it with the White Dust crystal, but it does no damage, just knocks it a great distance away.

"I don't like those things" Emma looks over her shoulder to check if they are there still, they aren't

"Me neither"

The two take off in a sprint until they are out of the forest, then continue walking.

"Hydras, are they snakes, worms, or overgrown leeches?"

"They look a lot like a leech even though they classify it as a snake"

"So, hows school?"

"Graduated, you?"

"Hunted down"

The two laugh some, then Ruby stops Emma in her tracks and looks at a large nevermore that flies over them in the direction of the town.

"Shouldn't we kill it Ruby?"

Ruby nods and shoots the ground with Crescent Rose in scythe form to fly toward it, while Emma changes Dust types to blue and fires ice spikes at it, each one flying as straight as an arrow with the force of an olympic thrown javelin.

A flurry of feathers from a flock of nevermores half the size of the one Ruby is after splinter the ice spikes, so Emma resorts to cryo bullets, using more of the current Dust crystal than she wanted to. The bullets became highly inaccurate at that range with those types of bullets against that small of a target, however when the first one hit, it had a very good effect. It landed right where the wing and torso connected and froze it, causing the never more to only have one working wing. As a result it crashed and died quite painfully. Ruby had started firing on the flock, hitting several of the birds, placing wonderfully large holes in their chest.

Emma, being the lover of aerial combat she is, she fully extends her spear and uses it similar to how Ruby uses her scythe, the recoil sending her into the remaining two flock members as Ruby refocuses on the big mamma bird. Emma spins her spear around, smacking a nevermore in the chin with the blunt end as she sails past, then fires a round into one of it's eyes, then resets the dust usage to cryo and fires more shots, turning the bird into a falling chunk of ice. The other nevermore had a worse time. Emma moves around it with the recoil of her spear to avoid a few hastily fired feathers and gets on it's back, making small shallow cuts into it. Ruby blankets the mamma bird with bullet fire, earning her it's attention. Ruby uses the recoil to move higher up, then turns her scythe around and resumes firing to get closer to it. Upon reaching her target the grimm takes evasive action, so she fires at one of it's wings until it is sufficiently shredded. Watching the grimm fall to the ground she smiles and fires until she is out of ammo, decimating the already doomed grimm. What Ruby failed to notice, was that a luck shot from a feather had cut the ammo belt she had, and when she reached for another clip, she realized that. Now we have a grimm reaper, a very great distance from the ground, falling at a very fast speed. Survival was probably not an option. Thankfully she landed on a very distressed nevermore, with a girl on it's head steering it with her spear.

"Umm…"

"Fast track transportation" Emma laughs and keeps it heading to Last Light.

"Finally someone who thinks like me" Ruby giggles and thinks back to when her and Weiss were riding an angry nevermore.

"We should probably get off this before we get to the town Emm"

"But he's my pet now…"

"Emma"

"Fine…"

When they get within viewing range of the town they see what appears to be a small city surrounded by a giant brick wall, some sections seem recently repaired, and most buildings are made out of wood,brick ,or metal. Most of them seem to have some sort of injury, Jeff's Hunting Goods, for example, is missing the u, the e and both g's. Another place that seems to have once been a bank is missing the first floor wall at the entrance of it, and several housing areas have sustained injuries ranging from broken windows and roof tiles, to missing roofs and walls made into windows.

"well, time to put him down" Emma says with mock sadness and Ruby holds her hand.

"Dont you dare crash him on purpose."

Emma sets him down slowly, then fires her spear, and the spear darts through his head and into the ground. They jump off as it's body falls onto the spear and begins its decomposition cycle. Since Emma doesn't want to wait to retrieve Talon Ruby cuts a path to it so she can retrieve it, then they start on their way back to Last Light.


	11. Night night

_**Here we**_

_**Go again**_

"Excuse me, I need proof of both of your Identifications"

"My friend here lost hers, but here is mine" Currently both girls are at the main gate, the gate part has holes in most of it. A human wearing a brown duster with an anti material rifle slung over his back is standing guard. He is probably an aura user given his lack of armor to protect himself. Ruby hands the man her scroll, he is easily taller than Emma, but is leaner than a guy that tall should be. The colossal guard takes the scroll and confirms that the red hooded girl is Ruby Rose, and knowing her credentials as a grimm slayer he lets her friend in with her.

"That guy was nice"

"I suppose so" Emma smiles and they walk down the road looking for a place to stay.

"So, have things here improved? I didn't really keep tabs on things after I left Beacon"

"Well it looks better than last time they put it together. New defenses and weaponry are helping keep this place grimm free, but occasionally they get a hit off. Only one civilian casualty since the founding seven months ago"

"They certainly got this together fast when you think about all the grimm attacks"

"Most of this stuff was transported via airship. The foundations and connecting the buildings to the foundations was one of the few things done he-RE!" Emma, getting distracted in her conversation failed to notice the small pothole in the sidewalk, and trips over it, Ruby barely catching her by her waist and pulling her back up.

"Watch where your going you clumsy Raven"

"Thanks Ruby, lets just go find a place to rest. All the fighting has got me tired out"

"Ok"

After about an hour they find a place with no holes in it or any signs of damage. Ruby pays for the room and has to carry Emma into it since she refuses to walk anymore. Once inside Ruby drops Emma on the carpet and crawls into the bed.

"OW!"

"Goodnight"

Emma pounces on her the moment she can stand again and growls "Don't you dare do that again."

"Your cute when your angry"

Emma blushes a bit and growls, then rolls off her and tries to get some sleep. Ruby was having none of that, rolling on top of her and nuzzling her.

"ruby fuck off…"

"Be nice Emma"

"any other time I would love to be under you, but not right now"

"Umm?" Ruby's face lights up, but Emma is far too exhausted to realize what she said and just closes her eyes and tries to go to sleep once again.

_Nice one Emma_

'What do you want?'

_You have no clue what you said huh?_

'Just wanna sleep'

_night night sis_

'night'

Ruby continues blushing and rolls off Emma as she falls asleep, then tries to catch some sleep of her own.

Screams filled the night, nevermore feathers raked into the windows, piercing Emma's arms and legs, making her awaken with a scream of pain. Looking out the window she saw the biggest flock of nevermores ever recorded raining feathers onto the town. Just visible above the wall was a bone plated grimm mask with small tusks appearing above the wall as well. Soon those tusks, quite far away and mostly covered by the wall got closer, and Goliaths, large and dangerous elephant grimm, begin a rampage through the town.

Emma continues screaming in terror, especially when she sees the abomination again, the sword wielding grimm, standing in the doorway, moving toward her with the intent to strike her down. However, this nightmare became much better when a reaper in red impales him with a rapier, punches him with a one two combo using red gauntlets that let loose a shotgun blast during the two, then slashes him rapidly with a katana and it's sheath, then unfolds a wonderful sight, a red scythe, and decapitates him. Afterwards the reaper begins removing the feathers from Emma and hands her Talon, then they both leap out into the night and cleanse the town of grimm.

Ruby awoke to chaos and explosions, looking outside to see the whitefang rolling over the town, along with other mercenaries and stolen military robots. She runs outside to see the citizens running away in fear and hiding in cover, some fighting back with ranged weapons. Ruby is quick to lend her support, slicing and shooting the white fang members, killing some and incapacitating the others, natural selection and all that. After reaching the main gate where several Atlesian Paladin battle mechs are decimating the wall. Ruby targets the known weak spots in a manner that seems rehearsed, and quickly deals with them. 'The white fang really needs to get some new toys' "Oh Ruby~"

"Son of a bitch!" Standing there, on top of a spider droid is that boy in the ash grey suit, smiling widely. In an instant Ruby is a hateful demon, sprinting at him, keeping low to the ground while using her left arm to push along faster and holds her scythe in the right. In an animalistic rage she leaps at him, and takes a direct shot from the spider's laser cannons, then is smacked into the ground by his whip, her aura keeping her from serious harm, so she rolls up and takes shot after shot at him, which he simply bats away, then speeds at her using several glyphs. He creates a glyph behind her and upon landing on the next one he vanishes, her bullet hitting empty air. He appears at the glyph behind her, and uses two more to close the distance and catches the back of her leg with his whip as it wraps tightly around the appendage, then swings her around and around, battering her into the ground, making her land on her other leg and arm each time until her aura breaks, then her bones.

He releases her and approaches slowly, using a black gravity glyph to suck in her scythe and keep it out of her grip. He smiles as he prepares to launch his whip out like a spear into her, when a spear comes from behind, ripping through his wrist and making him drop his cane whip, then he is stabbed through his heart by the same spear. As his body drops Emma appears from behind him and helps Ruby up.

For the first time in a long time both girls slept completely at peace, smiling in their sleep as their usual nightmares take a happy turn for once.


	12. Dear god it hurts!

_**Dark lord Izan**_

_**We follow thee**_

That morning was a very similar wake up to Emma's nightmare, minus the terrible sting of nevermore feathers. The town was in the middle of that month's shrieker raid. The grimm surged the walls and gunfire could be heard in large abundance. Atlesian Paladin mechs were tearing up the sudden wave of grimm, beowolves, boarbatusks, hydras, ursas and goliaths were teeming the grounds around the city. Anti air turrets were firing at nevermores in the air, ripping them down, while teams of hunters were gearing up and attacking. In the middle of the air was the one sole cause for the raid. The oldest shrieker grimm, Izan. Shriekers are essentially giant eyeballs, small ones are usually a few feet in length, middle aged ones are about two meters. They stop growing at ten meters and are perfectly spherical. Izan was a shrieker fifteen meters in length. Covered completely in the white bone plate armor, with the pupil also being covered, the one weak spot in the shriekers. The pupil part is now a tattoo like mark colored red. The shriekers can summon grimm from thin air, the way they do this is a mystery, though some theorize that shriekers are the grimm's gods. The rarity of shriekers can be assumed to be such but most rule out magic. Others claim they can teleport grimm from anywhere on the world to their position, however no grimm populations have been observed to be moved during shrieker raids. The most common theory is that they take malice and hate from those around it and construct grimm with it, however that theory is a long shot. Izan has summoned more grimm than any other shrieker and is theorized to be as old as one hundred thousand years, which would answer why it is as large as it is and as powerful.

"Oh my god"

"We gotta go Ruby!" Emma tosses Ruby her scythe while Ruby slaps on her red Ember Cecilia and compacts her version of Myrtenaster, catching Crescent Rose and dashing out the door after grabbing the ribbon usually used for Gambol Shroud, leaving the katana behind while Emma grabs Talon, slots in a yellow Dust crystal in place of the blue, and darts out into the fray with Ruby.

"Is this what hell is like?"

"Nope this is what Last Light is like!"

The roar of the grimm is deafening. The gunfire and Dust explosions aren't helping.

By the main gate the Atlesian Paladins are ripping into the charging beowolves and ursa, while on the south side human and faunus troops are repelling the boarbatusks as best as they can. The goliaths trudge through the city without issue as they are old enough to be completely covered in their bone plates. Among the group of hunters trying to kill the goliaths is the human from the gate, each shot from his rifle creates a small crack wherever it lands.

"How the hell do we win this?"

"Pray to your gods huntresses"

"Huh?" Ruby and Emma turn around and see a grey haired middle aged man holding a tomahawk in one hand and a pistol in the other, around him are two others, one of them has black hair starting to grey while the other has brown hair with no grey hair present. Each is wearing combat padding similar to Jaune Arc's but lacking the shield like protrusion in the middle. The one on the right holds a silver sword and the one on the left holds a spear. Each of them has a pistol identical to the man with the tomahawk. They depart quickly into combat, eager to end the violence.

"Well, lets not disappoint" Ruby fires a round into a cracking goliath plate to open it up further, and a white dust powered shot from Emma's carbine breaks through, injuring the grimm and prompting it to run throughout the city, while several hunters slice at the opened wound, further revealing it's flesh and carving it up, then one of the men from earlier and fires a pistol round into it, coated with electricity and it fries the grimm, slowing it down from the shock. A few more shots into it makes it tumble over due to blood loss and it dies soon after. The group of hunters assault the next goliath while Ruby and Emma hurry to the main gate. The chaos there was the worst. A good majority of grimm were dead, while a few of the defenders were incapacitated or dead. Ruby uses the ribbon she grabbed to swing Crescent Rose around from a distance, using recoil from the shots and pulling and releasing the ribbon to guide her lovely scythe through the crowds. Emma began raining down lighting rounds into the grimm, killing pairs of them with each shot. A swarm of hydras begin climbing over one of the guards and biting and eating him, so before they can cause anymore damage she fires a low concentration round to shock the grimm off and stun them, also stunning the man but keeping him alive. She darts over and gets him out of there, then surveys the battlefield. 'Grace' _I'm on it_

"_Lets dance bitches!" _Grace stabs Talon into the wall, then leaves it and summons her blades, they stab into grimm across the battlefield, earning the grimm's pained roars, further invigorating Grace's blood lust. She charges into the battlefield in a whirlwind of death, carving through all grimm in her path. Within forty minutes the battlefield was clear, but at this point Grace was exhausted and transferred with Emma, who still had a lotta fight in her. Sadly she was taken out of the fight rather quickly while her aura was coming in. Izan, the wonderful god of grimm, had been shot out of the sky, and landed on one of Emma's legs before she got up, snapping it and making her scream in pain. Ruby reacts to that quickly, activating her semblance and striking it at an inhuman speed, forcing it to roll off of Emma's leg, and she grabs her and moves back into town, placing Emma in one of the stores and preparing to defend her.

A very great sound was heard by them, a dropship.


	13. Dropship Funeral Committee

_**Of Clerics**_

_**And Demons**_

Out of the drop ship dropped the sister team to Emma's old team, which was the only known team of two, since two people were eaten by a deathstalker, and the leftover pair had demonstrated wonderful teamwork. Welcome to team twin, or TN.

"So, you know the plan right Sis?"

"Like I would forget it"

In unison both figured, cloaked by the fog of battle due to all the explosive dust used, said "Slash and blast!" A bright flash parts the fog for a spilt second, highlighting the pair.

The girl is dressed in black funeral attire, no veil, and is a few centimeters above Ruby's hight. Next to her rests a black metal coffin her size leaning against her right arm. One of her eyes is covered by a medical patch while the right is green. Her hair is as black as her outfit. Her right hand has extended claws, marking her as a faunus. Next to her is her brother, also her size, wearing all white attire and has short hair as white as his outfit. On his left rests a large cross in the form of a greatsword with the top of the cross being a handle for it. There is a circle in the center that seems to be glowing. That circle is a pure white dust crystal. He has two dark green eyes and has claws extended on his right arm

The girl moves her right arm, revealing the coffin is strapped to her arm, and she charges off into the battle, using it as a shield and bludgeon. The boy moves in with the cross-sword, each smack with the blunt weapon is increased extremely due to the large dust crystal. One swing at a goliath's leg forms small surface cracks that spread half way up it, making the creature try to stomp him, only to be countered by the girl's coffin shield. The boy jumps up and smacks his leg again, this time the cracks grow tremendously. To follow it up the grimm stumbled and the girl opened the coffin lid, and out popped a cannon barrel, followed by an aura blast from said cannon, ampllified with dust crystals. The explosion off balanced the goliath further, and it fell over. The two then proceeded further into the fight while the other fighters assaulted the downed beast.

"Let's get started sis" The boy's weapon quickly transforms into a white scythe, similar to Ruby's but without the gun mechanics and only has one blade.

"Agreed. Let's start the hunt" Her coffin encloses around her and forms full combat armor. The coffin turned armor fits her perfectly and doesn't seem to hinder her at all as she dashes at the same speed as her brother. Her claws are wrapped as well, turning them from a backup weapn into a deadly tool. The dust crystals inside the coffin are stored under the armor and her claws ignite into flames as she shreds the first grimm. The next fell to her brother as he dashed ahead and cleared the way with his scythe, aura shockwaves cleaving through them. Following his clearing of the grimm the girl darts forward, slashing apart grimm with her reinforced claws. One beowolf pounces her and the moment she lands she kicks it off and onto the ground, then rolls onto it and punches through the mask of it, then gets up and heads back into the fray with the rest.

Meanwhile Emma had stopped her bleeding with Grace's help. After Grace had exhausted all of her aura, which had barely regened Emma's leg had stopped bleeding and after Emma poured a good chunk of her aura into the healing process the bone had reformed slightly, but the leg was still unusable.

"Hey Emma, check out the new duo" Ruby points through the giant hole in the town wall.

"HOLYSHIT!"

"What?"

"Thats Kaden and Karin"

"Who?"

"They were terrifying enough during the initiation, and since two people died they became a two person team. They were good enough to be a second year team and decimated everyone during practice. Sometimes my team worked with them"

"Never heard of them, but they are pretty scary"

"Bro, nevermores!"

"Consider them dead"

Kaden leaps into the air off an aura pulse and slices at them, sending shockwaves into them and slicing off their wings one after another. On the ground Karin kicks an ursa into charging beowolves, then shocks a boarbatusk about to hit her, disorienting it so it loses course and smacks into another boarbatusk, then she slices their bellies open. A leaping beowolf is about to hit her as she turns around, but a well placed sniper round rips it apart, and Ruby smiles having hit the mark.

The battle drones on and on for what seems like forever, in a constant flurry of grimm attacks and a giant rolling eyeball trying to crush people. Kaden turns his scythe into it's blunt cross sword and smacks it, and despite not cracking the armor in the slightest Izan was batted away like a baseball.

After two more hours of this the grimm are dealt with and Izan had long since retreated. In the aftermath of the battle the casualty list was two civilians, eight guards, and hordes of grimm. The injury list was significantly larger. Seventy civilians injured, five in critical care. Guards and hunters had One hundred and seven injured, fifteen of them critically. On site aura healers had managed to keep the kill count low by reversing the bloodier injuries, but not enough to keep the board clean.

Ruby helps Emma back to their room then goes to fetch the twins.

"So, Ruby Rose, what do we owe this pleasure?" Kaden says as he places his cross on his back.

"I have someone here who would like to see you"

"Who? Karin's coffin is still in armor mode.

"It's a surprise"

"Ok"

After a good bit of walking they arrive and Ruby leads them into her and Emma's room. Emma had been petting Talon, and laying across the couch.

"...You, why do you have Emma's weapon?"

"Hi Kaden, hey Karin. It's cause I am Emma"

"Bullshit!" Kaden slams his cross on the ground, making the ground break some.

"True shit"

"Then tell us something only Emma would know" Karin crosses her arms.

"Ruby, out"

Ruby leaves and waits outside while Emma whispers to them just to make sure no one hears.

"You two, are secretly a couple"

"Well...I'll be damned"

"So how are you alive?"

"Honestly? My semblance, or whatever, seems to be a split personality with her own aura reserves, and kept me alive until I regained consciousness. I then used a dust crystal to blast a hole to the surface"

"You can thank us now or later"

"So you two did it?"

"Someone should have gotten you a farewell gift, so we did"

"Thanks"

"So, there was no graverobber?"

"No Kaden, there wasn't, but now I'm an outlaw, which is why my hair has been changed as well as my eye color. Wish I could have told you guys but I met up with Ruby and well, here we are. Ruby you can come in now!"

"Ok!" Ruby opens the door and walks in. "I like your scythe Kaden"

"And I like yours"

"So, this is the terrifying Ruby Rose?"

"Aww, who called me terrifying?"

"A few kids at school"

"You two just, 'dropping' in?"

"Really Emma?" Karin rolls her eyes while Kaden and Ruby chuckle a bit.

"We were actually on our way to look for Ruby. Ozpin said she would have a surprise for us"

"Clever Oz, she really did have a surprise. Our next assignment was hopefully with you two. We're going up to Atlas"

"A atlas?"

"Yeah, something about a grimm god wrecking havoc"

"I would rather not, but what the hell? Revenge is revenge, can we wait until my leg is better though?"

"How long will it take?"

"A few days"

"We can take an airship"

"...Ruby?"

"I, uh, don't know...Can you guys help me with something afterwards?"

"Sure"

"Kaden!"

"We might have fun"

"Fine, we accept. C'mon Raven, our ship's gonna take off soon"

"Little help Ruby?"

"Sure"


	14. Rallying, Parting, and Revealing

(As this story draws closer and closer to the end, a new one will arise, but enough of future plans, I'd like to take a moment to say thanks for actually making this far)

_**Preparations **_

_**For War**_

It had taken awhile to get Emma over to the ship and on it, and Grace had taken over to help heal her leg, pouring tons of aura in it to speed up the healing process. After the hour of awkward silence and occasional small talk between the four Emma came back and put her aura into her leg. After that wonderfully exhausting aura dump her ankle was the only thing with major injury, the rest of her leg bone fragments were lined up and the next wave of aura would fuse them back together.

"So, how's things at Beacon?"

"Cardin finally got his ass handed to him, and not like usual, like he nearly died" Kaden's words brought some smiles to Emma and Ruby.

"What happened?"

"Did you break his legs?" Ruby chuckles thinking of Nora.

"Nah, he insulted me"

"And you nearly killed him?"

"I did" Karin smiles. "No one makes fun of me or my family without going a round with my Coffin Regalia"

"Not even Repentance is that scary, and it runs on a pure white dust crystal"

"Yikes"

"Anyway, sis here grabbed Cardin and pulled him into the arena, whenever the fight began she played around with him, ducking and dodging, then gave him a good cut across the face with her claws, then another on his hand, and slugged him with that coffin of hers. Next she hit him with an ice blast from the cannon and while he was frozen she put her armor on and started boxing him around before kicking him through a wall, then without looking at his aura level on the screen she released a punch with added red dust, burning him severely. He was in the hospital for days"

"Damn…

"My handiwork is perfection"

"I can see that…"

"So, wanna watch the news, see what's up at Atlas?"

"Sure"

The four turn on the tv mounted in the cabin they are hanging out in and are greeted with a commercial for Signal Academy. In the commercial an identifiable individual talks about shaping minds and bodies into competent hunters, and that it is just a starting step while wielding a scythe. Ruby mentions her uncle Qrow and that he is the scythe user in the commercial.

Next the reason they are watching the tv appears.

"In recent news the grimm threat outside Atlas is still a risky thing, the humanoid grimm has so far blockaded all non-air travel, and has sent many people to the hospital., or morgue. The Atlas military has tried several solutions to try and resolve its presence. So far in the casualty list is four hundred soldiers, most of them infantry, as well as a few mech pilots and some airships. James Ironwood has more to report"

"While the threat looks bleak we have the best hunters and huntresses gearing up to put it down, among them Ozpin, director of Beacon Academy is enroute with senior hunter Glynda Goodwitch. I expect that even a grimm lord will not be able to hold off that kind of firepower"

"News from Beacon does insist that Ozpin will be arriving within the next day or two. Next we have reports of white fang violence in the southern half of Vacuo-"

"That's enough of that" Karin puts down the tv remote and leans back, while smiling over at Kaden.

"I hope we can stop that thing"

"Trust me, you already find us scary, but you haven't seen Karin's semblance"

"Oh what's it do?"

"My semblance is called point breaker, according to mister give everything a cool name over there"

"Guilty as charged"

"Anyways, it's a deadly attack like finisher, I guess. I can channel my aura into one of my fists and deliver a very deadly attack, pushing my aura through my target and injuring their organs directly while also breaking any aura shields they have up and disrupting their aura for a few seconds, allowing some pretty good killing blows. Takes a lot outta me though, and has a bit more of a punch when my armor is on"

"And mine is pretty cool too"

"Yes, you slice things"

"Ass"

"At least i'm a cute ass"

"Ha ha. Anyway, it's an aura based teleportation move, allowing me to zip around the battlefield. Great distances are a pain but an up close fight is easy, just zipping by attacks"

"Cool"

Suddenly Kaden is next to Ruby. "Isn't it?"

"Ah!"

Then Kaden zips back and smiles, then goes to try and find some edible things.

"I better make sure he doesn't get into the snacks, he's a bit uncontrollable"

"Sure, I think he'll find something sweet to eat" Ema winks at Karin, and she glares and turns before she develops a blush and walks out after Kaden.

"So...uh ruby?"

"Yes Emma?"

"I uh…wanted to ask you something…"

"Ok, why are you going from talking to whispering?"

"..." Emma whispers some things into Ruby's ear, both girls developing a small blush, and Ruby takes her hand and holds it, making Emma sit back in her chair relieved.

_Took you long enough, still need me or do you think you can handle all this on your own?_

'What do you mean?'

_Think you can control all this and let me just be a voice in the back of your head? Being in charge of your body from now on would just feel awkward_

'What happens if I say yes?'

_Well, for one you'll have access to your aura, all of it, and I can catch a break, maybe get some sleep for the first time since you woke up in that coffin_

'I don't want you to disappear Grace'

_Like it's that easy to rid yourself of me and my perfection_

'Then I accept'

_Then I'll be back when you need guidance, not when you need a maniacal side to fight for you_

'So you were never crazy?'

_Nope, just a good big sister_

'I love you'

_Same here, now fix your broken leg, you should have enough aura now to knock that problem off the list, oh and have fun with your semblance_

'So, could you leave at any time?'

_Yep_

'Why now?'

_I wanted to make sure you were well grounded, you know, friends to watch out for you again and all that, also I didn't resurrect you from that coffin_

'Then...who?'

_Can't give out all my secrets sweetie, even the summer hides a few secrets_

'Ok then, see you later sis'

_Bye_

"Emma?"

"uh yeah?"

"you zoned out for a bit"

"Sorry" She smiles and holds Ruby's hand a bit tighter while she begins fixing her leg. After thirty continuous minute sof aura transference to her leg she smiles and waves her hand, the lighting of the room shifting.

"Emma?"

"Yep"

"How are you doing that?"

"Grace retired, or stopped restricting my power, something like that"

"Oh…"

After an eternity, an hour, of sitting on a comfy couch holding hands, the two passed out. The twins were sidetracked with messages piling up from Ozpin, Glynda, Atlas, and general spam. God damn spammers.


	15. Bringing the troops

I am darkness eternal.

I am a soul without a soul. -From the log of Grimm King Scourge

"We're arriving in five, the offense is preparing by the gate"

"I can't even see the city yet"

"We're doing a high speed sudden stop maneuver to avoid the attentions of the nevermores and drakes" Imagine a dragon the size of two busses, then subtract one car from that. Their breath changes with the color of markings on the mask, which seem to correlate to dust crystals in the sense of what breath they have. Pure white masks have no breath like attacks, but instead just have amplified physical force with each hit.

"Oh"

At the one minute to arrive mark Atlas was visible. A large ass kingdom, a place Nora would love to be queen of. Large, large city, Skyscrapers that were larger than usual, and sitting in the near middle was the spire of the SDC. Surrounding the city that stretched for miles, was a wave of black that stretched for more miles. The air was thick with nevermores and drakes, luckily the small, by massive airship perspective, fits through quickly, only hitting one nevermore and losing an engine, but never the less they hit the glyph barriers designed to allow such a high speed sudden stop be performed safely. The ship was held in place until it finally stopped accelerating and slowed, then it was moved to a docking port.

"We have arrived, please enjoy your stay in Atlas"

Ruby smiles and starts to help Emma up, who accepts the help and walks towards the exit holding Ruby's hand, The twins doing the same as they followed.

Nearby another ship, a full blown bullhead was in the process of high speed docking. Once that was finished some very familiar, and some hated, faces came out.

First was Ozpin, then he was shoved as a motion sick Jaune Arc ran for a trashcan. Next came Nora, dragging Lie Ren out, followed by Pyrrha. 'They don't appear to have changed that much' Thought Ruby and she smiled. Next out was Team CRDL. Cardin, Russell, Dvoe, and Sky, were more or less shoved out of the bullhead by Coco, member of team CFVY, then Velvet, Fox, and Yatsuhashi. Last out was professor Goodwitch. As much as Ruby would have loved to talk to them a man came over the intercom and announced that the new arrivals were to come to the Atlas Military Complex Building. Ruby looked down a bit sheepishly, but quickly followed everyone, and in the melding of people they talked about what had transpired in the time between seeing each other. Goodwitch nearly attacked Emma' but Ozpin ordered her to drop the entire case a few weeks ago, and gave her a don't even think about it glare. While the groups caught up they could clearly see the work the Atlas military had put forward to stop any grimm attacks from the horde outside.

Spider droids were on the roofs of each building, two to a roof. Paladins patrol the streets, the pilots commanding Atlesian knights, robotic soldiers made to keep humans out of combat. Sentries were posted at each turn of corners on the street and were equipped with assault rifles, scanning for threats. After twenty minutes of small talk, walking, and team CRDL Bitching, they had finally arrived.

The Military complex was rather huge, expanded by a few blocks after the collapse brought about by Ruby Rose in her ruthless attempt to murder the unknown cane wielding boy. Of course the authorities, nor Ozpin, had known that was Ruby's handiwork and instead blamed the villain. Once inside the building it looked pretty amazing, fancy marble walls and tables, a marble fireplace for waiting guests with a flat screen on it and a fast track elevator that goes straight to the top floor without stopping for anyone else who presses a button. Amazingly the elevator was big enough for just everyone but CRDL. They had to come back up on it with Goodwitch, who was there to make sure they didn't run off and cause trouble.

Once everyone was present in the top floor they proceeded as a group into what was a war room. There was a large circular screen with a couch that encircled it, and having exactly one entrance,with James Ironwood and Penny already seated toward the far end. Everyone filtered into the room, the twins sitting together, the raven and reaper sitting together, a little closer than anyone else, the witch and the professor sitting with team CRDL between them, while the rest scattered about in no actual order.

The uncomfortable silence was broken by Ironwood. "I suppose the reason your here is obvious, so I'll cut to the chase. Tomorrow we are launching an all out offensive against the grimm threat. You are all here due to the part you will be playing. Ozpin, assign the roles"

"Yes, Ruby, Emma, Kaden, Karin, from now on you are team REKK. Not the best of names but the only one that fits. You will be aiding Me, Glynda, and Penny to assault the main leader. CRDL, JNPR, Ironwood, you will aid the basic military to clear a path to the main boss, then break off to attack the grimm threat. CFVY, you will be providing supporting fire and defending the main town. We also have high value targets leaving Atlas, Jace, Jade and Jen. The leaders of a kingdom currently off our scopes, minus Jen, who is The princess and a SS+ threat. Keep them safe while they depart if you can, but the town comes first. Furthermore, the Atlas military will be able to provide supporting fire, each team leader will have a gps tracking app placed on their scroll by their aura counter so they can call for ordinance if needed. Tonight will be our last time to prepare, if you have any buisness to take care of, do it now, for tomorrow may be our last"

Shortly after his speech and role assignment the meeting was adjourned and the teams walked together, this time JNPR and CFVY telling their exploits on the battlefields to Ruby and Emma. Seems Jaune had found out how to manipulate his aura better, letting him infuse it in his sword, which then showed it's full potential. The sword, once infused with aura, could be thrust at a target and fire a blast of aura at them that traveled like a bullet, but much flashier, and Jaune had also gotten better in fighting after all that relentless training with Pyrrha. Ren and Nora were still the same, one stoic and one extremely crazy. Velvet had to use her weapon a few days ago and it was not ready for use again, so a devastating pandora's box like aura blast was out of the question. Woulda been nice to have that ace in the hole. After all the team talks everyone, minus CRDL, agreed that the survivors would have one massive food fight in the Beacon sparring room, then they retired to their rooms. The twins getting a room for themselves, Emma and Ruby getting their own room, Jaune and Pyrrha, and Ren and Nora. Glynda got a room to herself like Ozpin and the members of CRDL. Ironwood left to go touch up on the military end and Penny went with him.

"So Ruby?"

"Yeah Emm?" Ruby smiles up at her, having rested her head on Emma's lap.

"You think we have a chance?"

"Yeah" She smiles.

"Please don't die out there"

"I'll give it my best shot, out of curiousity, has CRDL gotten decent at fighting yet?"

"Actually yeah, more against grimm than people, their rubbish at that"

"No wonder they arent helping with the leader"

"On a cheerier note, your hair is beautiful"

Ruby smiles at her and holds her hand. "I know" She says confidently.

"And your body" Ruby blushes a bit "It's so nice"

"Ok ok slow it down, lets save going farther into this if we live"

"Aww, can I at least get a kiss?" Emma gives a fake pout.

"Maybe" Ruby smiles and curls up on her lap, and Emma lays back on the bed while rubbing Ruby's head.

"Night"

"night...zzz"


	16. The War: Opening moves

_**I have seen to your plans**_

_**I have followed your leadership**_

_**Now prove you were worth the effort **_ _-Sigurd to King Scourge, lord of grimm_

"All available military personnel not already assigned to duty, report to the main gate!"

Ironwood's voice boomed, waking up all the sleeping hunters and huntresses, prompting them to get dressed and go to the main gate, where Ozpin was waiting, staring out over the oceans of grimm, who had changed formation. instead of surrounding the city and waiting, they have formed ranks, hydra swarms of an innumerable quantity in the front with goliaths, and then scattered lines of ursa, beowolves, and boarbatusks in a medieval fashion with a few miles between them and Atlas. The grimm lord stands at the halfway point, and seems to smile. Ozpin waved to him and he waved back, so logically, and against Ironwood's protests, he took a jeep out to meet him.

"You are the grimm lord are you not?"

"That is an insult to what I am!" The grimm's voice is charged with malice, hate, and a tiny bit of sarcasm. "I am the grimm king! I am Scourge!"

"Well, Scourge, why are you doing this?"

"So I can eliminate every last one of you human blights!"

"So diplomacy is no use?"

"None, I just wished to see the face of the bravest person I'll be killing"

Without another word the two returned to their respective armies.

Atlas has lined the gate with Paladin mechs ready for war, four bullheads stand by to open fire, and multiple dropship and assault ships fill the skies between them. On the tops of the walls are spider droids, cannons in combined form and standing by to unleash hell. The moment Ozpin enters the kingdom of Atlas, giant nevermores and drakes arise and attack, the fire from the bullheads and ships shredding the nevermores easily, but the drakes prove to be tougher, taking a few extra seconds to put down. Within a minute the grimm army is within operating distance and the Paladins and Spider droids open fire on them, the Goliaths acting as shields for most of them. Coco takes up position at the middle on top of the gate and shreds them with her minigun, while Yatsuhashi and Fox stand at the side of the gate, daring the grimm who may pierce the line to try and get past them. Velvet stands to the right of Coco and starts using dust crystals to send out magic like attacks. Scourge is centered in the dead middle of the army, so the rest of them wait until the front line of goliaths are one mile out, then they charge. By this point a countless number of grimm have fallen, and one bullhead has lost an engine while many assault craft and dropships are downed.

"Alright, here we go!" Out sprints CRDL and JNPR, the teams keeping up greatly with each other. As they charge Sky and Dove fire bullets at them, accompanied by Pyrrha's rifle milo, electric shots from Emma's shotgun like carbine form of Talon, and Ruby's sniper rifle form Cresent Rose. Behind them Ozpin runs, showing that his cane wasn't really necessary for him all these years, while Goodwitch punctuates the area with hail strikes and lightning strikes in tandem. Karin and Kaden had their weapons in transform mode, Karin being in her bad ass coffin armor, while Kaden has his Repentance in scythe form, slashing forward to hit them with aura shockwaves. As they approached the oncoming wave, the grimm went around them, confusing all of those in the hunting party, as they weren't surrounded, just disregarded. In a moment they were in probably the only clear spot in the entire battlefield, which closed around them. Via the plan teams JNPR and CRDL went into the fray while the other hunters ran all the way to Scourge, who was completely alone in the middle of the clearing. Once they were within two miles of him through the large circular clearing a barrier sprung up behind them, making sure they wouldn't be able to get away.

"Come now children, let me show you some new tricks" Ozpin points his cane at Scourge, and pulls the handle on it down, and a beam of light blasts from it at Scourge, who is knocked very far away by it, almost hitting his barrier.

Outside the Bullhead containing Jade, Jace and Jen is taking off, and quickly brought down by a coordinated ice drake attack, freezing the engines and weighing it down, and then the ship crashes on the barrier, and goes through it instead of bouncing off, like Scourge had allowed it to happen. The wreckage separated them, and bursting from the wreckage were Jace and Jade, taking sides by Ruby and Emma.

"Long time no see"

"Sister get out?"

"I hope not"

Ozpin chimes in, "Glynda, use the ship"

"Got it" A wave of her riding crop and debris from the ship are lifted up and spiral around each other, creating deadly scrap metal spears. She keeps adding metal till the grimm king is visible through a hole, then she stabs at him with it, making it rip the wrecked ship's belly wide open and shove it away. Sadly, Jen escaped. The tendril starts being blasted from the side until it is down to a few pieces of metal, which Scourge slashes in half. Appearing next to him is a spitting image of Jade, save for the range jumpsuit, and three parallel scars on one of her cheeks. In her hands are one pistol in her left, and a kitchen knife in her right.

"Oh sister, I found my weapons"

"I see you also got rid of the aura binding handcuffs…"

"Yep" She fires the pistol, and everyone scatters as it causes an explosion.

"I want first turn with them my king"

"Murder every last one but the one with the black hair and red eyes. She's mine"

"Yes sir" Jen gives a large smile, comical yet insane, and dashes forward to attack Jade, so Jace intercepts her by placing a fire trap glyph on her path, sending her into the air.

"I've got this one" Jade jumps into the air after Jen, slicing at her with the glass knife, missing by a mere centimeter before getting stabbed in her arm by Jen's knife, which seems to have no special properties, save that it doesn't seem as flimsy.

"I wonder how your insides taste sister"

"Shut up Jen!" In charges Jace with his sol dominant greatsword, a wave of fire following his downward slash, making Jen dodge to the side. Joining in on the fight is Penny, her swords springing from her back and raking the ground around Jen, making her jump farther back.

"Let us fight, I am combat ready!" All ten swords convert to gun mode and she unleashes a barrage, while REKK, Goodwitch and Ozpin forge ahead to attack Scourge directly.


	17. The War: Holding ground

_**Can you satisfy my hunger?**_

_**Cause I really am hungry! -**__Jen, moments before eating her last victim_

"That all you have? Some guns and fancy glyphs?" Jen ducks under a slice from Jen, and gives her a shallow cut on her leg, then attacks Penny, who surrounds Jen with swords, blocking the attack and cutting into her, then tossing her around the area and switching to gun mode again, firing a large volley at her, which she dodges gracefully.

Just to find a greatsword trying to cut her neck open, so she shoots Jace's side, knocking him and her apart, hurting him and minorly bothering her.

"You guys are persistent. Lets take a trip" Jen smiles and throws her knife at them, Jade and Jace trying to run away, while Penny looks confused, then fires another volley. Jen dodges it and the knife explodes into a red and black portal, sucking all four of them in.

"Fox, left!"

Fox punches an approaching Ursa in the face, then slices it open with his elbow blades, then jumps back to dodge a beowolf, which a spider droid erases in a flash of light from the main cannon firing.

"Yatsu, behind you!" Yatsuhashi turns around and brings his giant sword down on a rolling boarbatusk, cracking it's plating and cutting it in half, then uppercuts an ursa into the air.

Velvet fires a column of well, fire across the battlefield, scorching grimm. So far the grimm had not breached the walls, save the flying ones. Nora had seen to the Hydra swarms with Magnhild in grenade launcher form and was now using ursa and beowolf alike as baseball bats. 'Ren was….Ren was… Where the hell did Ren go?' Jaune thinks as he watches from the sky after being flicked into the air by a death stalker. 'Oh there he is'

Ren is moving like a flow of water, his machine pistols ripping through all the grimm in his way thanks to precise targeting, while slicing those that dare to get too close. Upon returning to earth Jaune slices through one of the death stalker's claws, his aura infused blade glowing with purpose. As the scorpion turned to face him he stabbed it in the head, his aura blast scattering it's brains and killing it. Pyrrha tosses her shield and it ricochets off of an ursa, then the head of a kind taijutsu, then a beowolf, then the taijutsu other head. Afterwards she slices down some boarbatusks and dodges the foot of a goliath.

"Jaune!"

"On it! Coco' come in, take down the goliath to your uh, right"

"Sure" In seconds it's losing plates along it's face and legs while Pyrrha backs up and stabs her spear into another grimm.

Glynda unleashes a furious attack of energy blasts, which Scourge blocks with his sword. Emma extends her spear at him and he steps to the side, taking a fist to his face from Karin, knocking him back a few feet and freezing over one of his eyes. Kaden gives him a shock wave hit, followed by a hit from the cross, launching him a good distance away.

"When should I stop holding back?"

Goodwitch freezes his feet still while Ozpin hits him with another white blast.

"I guess that means now" He smiles, a weird sight with that grimm mask for a face, and he tosses his sword at them, everyone dodges it, then Scourge takes off like a rocket. Ozpin swings his cane at him, but he leaps just above it and kicks the professor in the face, then rolls under an ice spike form Glynda and uppercuts her. Next he swings at Kaden, who simply flashes behind him and smacks him with the cross, sending him into Karin, whose claws pierce into him and she lights him on fire. Scourge releases a pulse of his dark aura from his hands to shove her back, then he does the same to Ruby, and is shot and frozen by Emma.

"Sis, Point break!"

"My thoughts slightly, see I prefer aura disruption to whatever you said" She melts enough ice to get to his chest, then executes her final strike, breaking Scourge's evil aura for a few seconds and sending him flying through the rocks. Immediately everyone let loose. Emma fired white dust shots, Kaden let out a flurry of shockwaves from his scythe, while Karin throws fireballs from her fists. Ozpin fires his beam while Goodwitch sends out bolts of purple light that strike him. Ruby was firing sniper rounds from her scythe, each time she moves the bolt forward it causes a blast from her Ember Cecilia to fly out and strike Scourge as well.

After his aura returned he leapt away from the fire zone, and all eyes were trained on him, and his now cracked mask.

"Time for some new tricks, I suppose" He smiles as a large clockwork glyph appears under them and the world flashes. When they can see again it's night time, the chaos that was around them was empty. Looking up you could see the moon as it reformed itself to be whole again. This worried them all greatly, all but Emma, who shot him while the moon was fusing back together, knocking him down.

"You bitch, I'll kill you first"

"You already did!" In a blast of blinding light her hair to it's original color, before the events that caused her death, a dark blue at the center and slowly getting lighter towards the end in a fire like design.

"I'm going to end you, and this pointless siege!" Emma darts forward, driving her spear into his chest.


	18. The War: New Intel

_**The most delicious sin**_

_**Is the best sin** _-Jen, during interrogation by APD

Penny, Jace, and Jade were deposited from the portal quite roughly, smacking into the ground and bouncing a few times. When they looked around they were in the courtyard of Beacon Academy. Jen popped out of the portal, which forms back into her kitchen knife and flies into her hands.

"Like the view?" Jen says mockingly as she attacks Penny, who uses all ten of her puppet string guided swords to block. The moment the blades collided Jen shattered. Into small mirror like pieces. Jen reappears behind Penny and slices her back quickly, leaving scratch marks, following that Jen jumps back as the swords impale themselves where she was.

"Robots arent edible" Jen pouts and Jade slashes at her, the two entering a circle of slicing, dodging, blocking and stabbing. After ten minutes, which Penny and Jace spent planning, Jace creates a trap rune in Jen's path. She merely steps over it, grabs Jade's hair, and throws her into it, resulting in an explosion. Jace then slices at her with his greatsword, Sol dominant, fire hanging in the air for a second. Jen taunts him by moving under the fre and slapping him, then rolling away to dodge an overhead swing. Jade slices her arm and has her own blood be absorbed into her knife while Jace and Jen duel, fire and ice being present, as well as a few pure energy explosions after Jace decided to duel wield his blades while resonating. Once Jade's knife is ready Jace jumps beside her and uses his swords to create two glyphs, one releasing a spew of flames and the other releasing an ice beam, as Jade creates a shock wave of her own blood at Jen. Jen's knife quickly changes in a swirl of red and black mist, into a very ornate umbrella, or parasol depending on the weather. It takes the full force of the attacks without wavering and Jen smiles at them.

"New toy huh?"

"Amazing what people you can find in a prison, too bad that girl didn't taste as good as her ice cream appearance suggested"

Her parasol then switches to what appears to be a simple cane, then when she points it at Penny, who was preparing an assault, a crosshair marker popping up from the bottom, then a concussion styled explosive shoots out, knocking Penny down.

"This one came from a criminal in a cool suit and hat, but he was such an asshole. Truth be told I wasn't hungry when I feasted on him"

"Sick freak!" Jace makes a combination rune in the air of both ice and fire, each shot from it is an explosive that has a good amount of force behind it. Penny reorients herself as professors Port and Oobleck, as well as a few classes of students pour towards them, they are too far to be of any help yet though. Jen's cane then changes into a sheathed sword, resting on her hip. As Jace runs forward, Jen fires the sword from the sheath, the hilt hitting his head and bouncing off. In that moment the sheath became a rifle, and she fires at him twice, knocking him on his back, then catching the sword back into the sheath.

"The faunus I got this from was soo delicious"

Penny spins her sword around charging her aura beam, unleashing it on Jen, who blocks it with the sword blade, half drawn. It sucks in the beam and she sheathes her sword starring Penny down as her body glows red and appears to be covered in grimm markings. Jace pulls Jade's leg making her fall as Jen quick draws her blade in a slashing motion, unleashing the energy she just stole, which cuts through everything at Jen's waist height, cutting some of Jade's hair, a few columns, and the plaque on the statue in the center. Thanks to Penny's aura she survived, but suffered an inch deep slash and a blunt force effect that tossed her away and off the cliffs of Beacon. She landed with a thump, and entered shut off mode to conserve power for until repairs could be made, given her only fighting weapons did not survive the attack. The residents of Beacon were too far away to get hacked in half, but within moments were close enough to open fire on Jen, who makes her weapon form her teleportation portal.

"Bye!" She jumps in and closes it before anyone can follow, leaving Jace and Jade at Beacon, far away from the war.

At the Atlas kingdom's main gate, the defense is going well. All the grimm have been killed according to the data. Each grimm had been killed three or more times so far. The question was, why the hell do they keep pouring in if they keep dying? Are they respawning somewhere? Were there more than the scouts initially saw?

"JNPR TO THE GATES!" Ironwood roared, his voice cutting through the battlefield. Almost instantaneously the team of four had made it back to the gates, weaving between grimm and soldier and bullet fire alike.

"Yes?" Jaune says as he slashes the side of a beowolf trying to pounce on Ren, who fires into the melee of battle, getting guaranteed hits on the grimm. Nora fires her grenade launcher into the air to aid the anti air systems with the drakes and nevermores. Pyrrha was taking calculated shots at the grimm with her rifle, each shot being a kill shot.

"Scouts have new reports in, a large group of shriekers have taken up the back of the line, allowing a near constant supply of grimm. We didn't get the exact coordinates of the shrieker line, so we are going to flank around the combat area and get to them"

"Why couldn't the scouts get the coordinates?" Ren asks casually

"Because you didn't make pancakes" Nora answers angrily as she switches Magnhild to hammer mode and bats a charging boarbatusk into the crowd, hearing other grimm cry in pain as it smashes into them.

"Because our scouts were shot down and only a handful made it back"

"Oh…"

"Hope your ready to sneak behind a grimm army" Ironwood jumps down from the gate, where he was firing at grimm with a modified assault rifle with an attached bayonet blade.

"Uh… not really"

They make a run for the side of the army, fighting their way through it.

"This is General Ironwood, requesting sniper assistance"

As they pass, any grimm that so much as twitched at them found a high caliber rifle round in it's head. Of course the sudden lack of fire support made ground teams have to fight harder for the next seven minutes, when JNPR and Ironwood made it out of the horde and ran into a tree line. During this lack of fire CRDL had to pick up the slack, Russell releasing blazes of flames and blizzards of ice from his dust daggers, Cardin unleashing fire balls with each swing now, and the other two members were forced to go back to back to fend off the hordes. Fortunately, or unfortunately, you decide, Cardin and his team were able to hold out, only gaining minor scratches and shallow cuts.


	19. The War: Turning Point

I might be dead

But I'm far from finished -Emma Currow

In the middle of the forest, halfway to the target area, a girl with an unusual appetite ambushes Ironwood and JNPR.

"Hi guys!" Jen jumps down from a tree behind Pyrrha, slices through her aura and into her cheek, just enough to draw blood, then takes a quick lick and jumps away to dodge Pyrrha's extending spear.

"What the fuck?"

"Your blood tastes good, a mix of warrior, pride, humility, and arrogance"

Jaune stabs at her and she jumps over it, her knife becoming the sheathed sword again as she kicks Jaune in the head. Next Ren opens fire, but his attacks do little to her aura, and as Ironwood goes to fire, she has her sword spring out and smack the charging Nora, making her fall as Jen takes the sword and slashes Ironwood three times, then kicks him through a tree, then turns to face Pyrrha, shooting her with the rifle, which she blocks, followed by several multitudes of slashes, then she sheathes her sword and jumps back just in time to dodge a swing by Nora. Ironwood blankets Jen with bullets, which don't do that much damage but do seem to piss her off as she hides behind a tree.

"Gonna get you~" Nora says as she bats away the tree, just missing Jen, then switching her hammer to grenade launcher and firing consistently on Jen, eventually knocking her down.

"Get her!" Ironwood, Ren, and Pyrrha open fire while Nora and Jaune get ready to knock her back down.

"Ow ow owowowow!" Jen rolls out, and shatters into fragments of a mirror the moment Jaune hits her with an aura slash.

"You guys like playing rough" She appears behind Ren and bites him, but it doesn't break his aura, and turns and sweeps her leg out from under her and she rolls away, dodging more bullets.

"I'll be back for you guys" She smiles and blows a kiss to Pyrrha, then one to Ren as she dodges gunfire and grenades, then has her weapon form the portal and she dives through.

"What a creep" Pyrrha.

"Only I bite Ren!" Nora.

"Nora!" Ren.

"What?" Jaune.

"Knock it off we have a job to do!" Ironwood.

After a good long five mile sprint the back line was visible from the forest, and about seventeen giant shriekers were constantly summoning more grimm as the ones they summoned earlier die.

"Targets confirmed, prepare to mark them" He hands baseball sized trackers to the four team members.

"Got it, team, mark!"

Nora bats her tracker into the farthest, shrieker, Pyrrha uses her semblance to throw hers farther than normal, making it land in the middle marker. Ren kicks his into the closest shrieker, and Nora bats the other two into the middle somewhere.

Sadly, this attracted all the newly spawned grimm, a vast platoon of mainly beowolves, about twenty king taijutsus, which were just becoming present on the battlefield, and two goliaths.

Luckily Ironwood calls in the success and the artillery blankets the area, killing most of the beowolves, two shriekers, and injuring the rest. This made holding their position easier, and they repelled everything but the goliaths, which they simply ran from. The second salvo hit the shriekers directly, destroying them, while JNPR worked to take out one of the goliaths. This was easier given that since the shriekers died, the grimm they summoned were no longer bound to the shriekers' wills and with that came some confusion, allowing the defenders to eliminate ever more of them without incident, and JNPR to topple one goliath before the other came to it's senses. Jaune and Nora went up top on the goliath's back while Ironwood, Pyrrha and Ren distracted it with gunfire. Jaune used his aura to stab his blade into the top of the goliath's mask, not yet penetrating deep enough to kill. In a swift tag team style Jaune rolls backwards as Nora jumps over him and hammers his sword through the goliath. After a minute to catch their breath they began charging back to the battlefield.

"Alright just two left!"

Coco smiles at what Velvet said and jumps off the gate as her minigun retracts into purse form. It had been about thirty minutes since the shriekers and most of the respawned grimm had been wasted, and now there were only two. Coco took the two remaining ursa on alone, knocking them around with her purse.

"Good boys, now play dead" She crushes one in the ground with her purse and kicks the other hard in the chest, then smashes it's head in.

Once that ursa was dealt with everyone gathered around the barrier holding their comrades and the grimm king inside. They did try to break in, but not even a bullheads main cannon could dent the barrier.

"I hope they're ok" Velvet says.

"C'mon, we should get our fallen brothers inside" One of the soldiers says and his squad moves out, soon everyone is following suite, meanwhile the main battle still rages on…

Scourge slides back from the stabbing and calls his sword to his side, taking a swing at Emma, but being interrupted by a sniper round to the face, knocking him down. Scourge gets up and launches his sword like a javelin into the crowd, only hitting one person, Karin, his sword dinging off of her armor, then he summons it back just in time to deflect another blast from Ozpin's cane, which hits Goodwitch, and she flies across the battlefield and smacks into the barrier. As she gets up, the hit having taken most of her aura to protect from, Scourge fires a pulse of energy from his hands at Kaden, who side steps it. That pulse hits Glynda hard, and she slumps down against the barrier, unconscious. Ozpin smacks Scourge around with his cane a few times, then jabs the end of it into his face and fires again, knocking him back quite a ways. Scourge stands up and smiles, a portal appearing in the air, releasing a beowolf, covered completely in bone plates. It gives out a loud roar and Scourge smiles and summons his sword again, and sits back and watches as the grimm pounces on Kaden, but is knocked off by Karin, then she delivers a three hit combo, ending it with an uppercut that traps it in ice. Scourge slashes the pillar apart, then dodges another of Ozpin's beams, and crosses blades with Emma, her spear in defense mode. The beowolf makes a charge at Ozpin and claws his chest, then pounces and bites him. Ruby uppercuts it with her scythe, then jumps in the air with it and unleashes a fury of bullets and slashes, unwilling to let the beowolf live. As Ozpin gets up Scourge throws his sword at Emma, who ducks under it. The blade nicks Ozpin's shoulder, depleting his aura instantly, so Ozpin tosses his cane to Karin and runs over to Goodwitch and watches the battle. The four pair up, Emma and Ruby, and Kaden and Karin. Ruby glares at the beowolf, and Kaden crushes it under his cross, then slashes it up into the air while his cross becomes it's scythe form. Ruby intercepts it again and slices across it's chest, followed by several shadow spears controlled by Emma battering it into the ground and dragging it around, then Karin blasts it with Ozpin's cane, and moves in, delivering punches altered by white dust crystals, the highly resilient bone plates cracking under the flurry, then she finally opens up a bit of it, and jabs Ozpin's cane into the beowolf, firing once, and killing it. She tosses his cane all the way to him, where he stands and prepares to protect himself and Glynda if he has to. As the new team locks eyes with Scourge, Ruby tosses Emma a pair of headphones wirelessly connected to Ruby's scroll, and Kaden copies her actions, giving Karin a pair of headphones.

"Who wants first turn?" Emma asks, and the twins bolt in.


	20. The War: Regicide

_**I told you your war was pointless**_

_**This world cannot be conquered, even by itself **_

_-Harvester of Marron, the hidden Kingdom_

_They see you as small and helpless_

Karin uppercuts him, freezing him in a column of ice, and Kaden smacks him down with his cross.

_They see you as just a child_

Scourge bounces off the ground, ducking under a backfist from Kaden, and backing away to avoid his cross.

_Surprise when they find out that a warrior will soon run wild_

Scourge kicks Kaden in the chest, then throws him to the side and ducks under a fist from Karin and sweeps her leg.

_Prepare for your greatest moments_

A burst of lightning from Karin's hands stop him from curbstomping Kaden.

_Prepare for your finest hour_

Kaden rolls away and gets up, while Karin rolls on her side away from Scourge.

_the dream that you've always dreamed is_

Kaden thrusts his cross into Scourge, sending him flying. Karin gets up and cracks her knuckles.

_Is suddenly about to flower_

A quick blast of aura shoves them back, and Kaden gets a shock wave hit off on Scourge, making him slide back a few centimeters.

_We are lightning_

An electrically charged round of fists from Karin shock Scourge while Kaden moves behind him with his scythe.

_Straying from the thunder_

Kaden uppercuts him with his scythe, and keeps spinning it, slashing him over and over again.

_Miracles of ancient wonder_

Karin Jumps up and punches him across the ground. The reaper and the Raven take off past them and they pause their music and watch.

_There's a day when all hearts will be broken_

Ruby sweeps his leg out from under him as he gets up

_When a shadow will cast out the light_

Emma stabs him in the back as he falls, then smacks his side and fires a white dust infused round, rolling him over.

_And our eyes cry a million tears_

He gets up a bit disoriented and looks at them

_Help won't arrive_

Ruby fires a round behind her, speeding forward and slashing him several times, and Emma jumps up and uses her spear to fire behind her, letting the recoil take her higher into the sky.

_There's a day when all courage collapses_

Scourge dodges under Ruby's scythe, and punches her hard in the chest, firing off an aura pulse, making her fly backwards, while Emma points her spear's tip at him and fires, letting the recoil from the blunt end propel her spear into him, and it bounces off.

_And our friends turn and leave us behind_

Emma jumps away and Ruby slashes down with her scythe, then grabs Emma's spear in her left hand and turns it around, firing into Scourge as the recoil takes the spear back to Emma.

_Creatures of darkness will triumph_

Emma turns Talon into carbine form and opens fire with ice dust, each shot forming a spike of ice, along with sniper fire from Ruby.

_The sun won't rise_

Scourge creates a glyph under them and it blasts them into the sky, both landing with a thud. The twins move back in with their music playing again.

_This will be the day we've waited for_

Three fists into his stomach from Karin

_This will be the day we open up the door_

Kaden smacks him with his cross, and Scourge grabs onto it, ripping it out of his grip, flying away with the cross.

_I don't wanna hear your absolutions_

Ruby and Emma charge in while the twins prepare to assault him again, but he uses Kaden's cross to knock them both away.

_I hope your ready for a revolution_

Ruby and Emma struggle to stand back up and end up falling down and watching as the twins try to get Kaden's cross back, dodging the lethal device as much as possible.

"We gotta get back in the fight"

"T too tired…"

"C'mon Ruby!"

"T three minutes please"

"Fine, let's hope the twins fare better than us"

_Welcome to a world of bloody evolution_

Dodge, stroke, damn I missed, jump over the cross, claw him, fuck I missed agai- Kaden's thoughts were interrupted by a cross to his jaw, and him bouncing off the barrier and into Karin.

After Ruby feels well enough to attempt fighting they get back up.

"About time, They've been getting their asses kicked"

_When we lose our faith_

A bullet beams into sight and nails the king in the face, sending him on his back, which he rolls up from, but also separating him from Kaden's cross.

_And forsake our friends_

Emma strikes his face with the blunt end of the spear, then fires a white dust infused round into his face, and goes to do it again when it fires a normal shot instead. "Fuck, outta white dust!"

_when the moon is gone_

Ruby fires Crescent Rose to add more force to the swing , and drives the tip of her scythe into his mask, the cracks widening.

_and we reach our end_

"ENOUGH" he fires a full power blast at them, but a distant blast of white light from Ozpin's cane disrupts the blast as well as shove him back against the barrier.

_There's a moment that changes a life when_

Ruby plants her scythe in the ground, aiming it at Scourge, while the twins come from the side, thanks to Kaden spending extra energy on his teleportation, and take his arms and hold him in place as best as possible.

_We do something that no one else can_

Emma places Talon in the barrel of the scythe, and uses her shadows to create a line of glyphs straight to Scourge's mask. "Do it"

_In the path that we've taken will lead us_

The shot speeds through each glyph, which Emma activates when Ruby fires, adding a ton of speed to the spear, which makes contact with the desperately struggling king's mask, and cracks it severely, the pure force from the spear and it's speed and refusal to stop, pushes him through the barrier, shattering it as if it was nothing but glass.

_One final stand_

Team REKK retreats back, grabbing Glynda and Ozpin, as two bullheads prepare the main cannons, having been on standby. Ruby turns off her music, much to Emma's displeasure, but she says nothing.

"How? How the hell?" Scourge's rage was short lived, as the hunters regrouped and aimed at him.

"You built the barrier to keep people out, not keep them in" Ozpin fires his cane several times in succession with the roar of the bullhead's cannons and miniguns, and one after another everyone joins in, Emma gives her carbine to Yatsuhashi so he can help, taking Ruby's Gambol shroud and converting the katana to pistol form so she can also fire. They continued this group firing until everyone and everything shooting ran out of ammo, or dust. Unknown to them the torrent of destruction had killed Scourge less than a minute after it started.

"So, collateral damage comes to an unprecedented amount of lien… We lost one hundred and seventy soldiers. Two hundred and eighty suffered critical injuries, out of those twenty died this morning, and the rest have some form of injury. However we did manage to keep the civilians safe"

"He was after us James, kill the army and subjugate the people"

"Makes sense, out of those lost only three hunters died, oddly enough they weren't on the battlefield when this started, and we have no records of them"

"That's unusual, someone just walking into a warzone"

"We also lost a great deal of mechanical equipment, soldier platforms mostly, price to restock is around seven hundred and eighty three million"

"This war has crippled Atlas, hasn't it?"

"Yes is has"

"I'll provide as much support as necessary to get it standing again"

"How is your recovery going?"

"Some bits of my aura are returning, though if I lost my cane I'm certain a beowolf alone could finish me off at this point"

"How long do you think it will take for you to recover all your aura?"

"A few weeks, maybe a month or two"

"The damage to Beacon taken care of?"

"My school can be fixed easily, keep your focus on Atlas"

"Sure, uh Ozpin?"

"Yes?"

"Is Glynda going to be ok?"

"No one told you yet?" There's a bit of humor in his voice.

"Told me what?"

"She went back to Beacon this morning"

"..."

"One day James, one day"

"She's got a heart of stone and a soul of ice"

"James…"

"I've got work to do, go celebrate with your students, by the way, Cardin Winchester and his team are being held in custody after a few nasty comments got them in a fight with some faunus"

Ozpin sighs, then leaves the room.


End file.
